What we did not know was how the year would serve as an inflection point for the entire country and begin a period of great uncertainty in health care.
As we look back on 2024, we recognize that the planning process not only produced better tools to communicate and measure our impact, but also a strong framework that has allowed us to stay focused on our vision of a Massachusetts in which every person has comprehensive coverage; quality, affordable and equitable health care; and optimal health.
This vision will endure even as we continue to be responsive to a constantly changing landscape within health care, public health, and the social safety net.
Audrey Shelto
President & CEO
Thomas H. Lee, MD
Board Chair
All Massachusetts residents have health insurance coverage and access to quality, affordable, and equitable care, especially those most in need.
Accessing health care should not mean losing a home that you and your family have invested time, money, and memories in. Our Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute published a set of educational materials on the state's MassHealth estate recovery process: Holding on to Home: A Primer on MassHealth Estate Recovery.
The report explains how estate recovery, which is the practice of limiting the passing down of assets — including homes — may perpetuate wealth disparities and intergenerational poverty. Alongside the policy analysis, a series of qualitative profiles and photos tell the stories of how estate recovery has impacted four individuals in Massachusetts after the loss of a loved one. These resources were featured in a Boston Globe series that highlighted this little-known policy for a large audience of readers. The findings were also used by legislators to educate their colleagues about the negative impacts on constituents and successfully pass legislation to remedy the burden.
Our Strengthening the Voice for Access grant program provides operating support to 11 advocacy groups focused on gaining and maintaining access to health coverage for marginalized populations across the state. In 2024 these organizations elevated the voices of seniors, immigrants, adults and children with disabilities, people with mental health and substance use disorders, as well as the population of Massachusetts as a whole in order to represent their lived experiences in health policy discussions.
Coalition and organizing work focused on: improving prescription drug affordability and access; ensuring access to medical care amidst hospital closures; promoting tele-behavioral health use in schools; creating momentum for investments in the primary care workforce; infusing a public health approach into health care policy solutions; and building power among those directly impacted.
In late 2024, together with Strengthening the Voice for Access grant partner Health Care For All, we reconvened the Massachusetts Coalition for Coverage and Care to bring together over 100 Massachusetts organizations concerned about federal policy impacts on our health care and coverage system.
All Massachusetts residents have access to the right type of behavioral health care where and when they need it.
Behavioral Health Help Line (BHHL) provides those seeking behavioral health care services with a single line to call for screening and warm handoffs to appropriate services and resources.
Community Behavioral Health Centers (CBHCs) deliver behavioral health care services onsite and coordinate access to a variety of crisis and routine outpatient behavioral health care services.
Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC) sites provide outpatient access to a limited set of behavioral health care services for urgent needs and operate within the Commonwealth's community mental health centers.
Integrated primary care seeks to expand access to behavioral health care services for MassHealth members enrolled in Accountable Care Organizations for conditions that can be managed in a primary care setting.
In 2021 the state announced the Massachusetts Roadmap for Behavioral Health Reform, which aims to increase access to culturally relevant behavioral health care services, including crisis and outpatient services, for all residents regardless of insurance coverage. The Foundation set out to monitor the Roadmap's success in addressing challenges in the existing behavioral health care system by gathering input from select Massachusetts stakeholders and early implementation data about the success of these reforms. Our report, which describes the key components of the Roadmap and provides an update on implementation and identifies opportunities to strengthen implementation moving forward, were shared with over 300 attendees during a webinar.
Through our Special Initiatives grant program, we funded Martha's Vineyard Community Services to create a co-responder pilot program to address the lack of behavioral health care access for island residents, who typically engage with mental health and substance use services only through 911 calls to police. The new program will link a qualified behavioral health clinician with local law enforcement to create a pathway to community-based services, diverting residents from detainment, arrest, or transport to the hospital emergency department.
All Massachusetts residents, regardless of race and ethnicity, experience equitable health care access, quality, and outcomes.
In response to disparities in pregnancy-associated mortality and severe maternal morbidity, the Foundation developed the one-year Perinatal Health Initiative grant program, which awarded $415,000 to 14 organizations. The organizations are working within and with marginalized communities to increase awareness of promising practices in perinatal health, expand community-led programs and supports for birthing people, and strengthen the advocacy voice for perinatal health.
As one of first steps in implementing our Health Equity Framework, the Foundation developed and released an interactive Health Equity Action Plan Inventory of current initiatives to address disparities in Massachusetts. With the goal of fostering collaboration, elevating awareness of the breadth of innovative efforts already in place, and scaling promising approaches, the Inventory is designed to increase sharing of promising practices among organizations no matter where they are on their health equity journey. During a virtual event, we introduced the inventory's 140+ interventions and programs being implemented in communities across the state. More than 200 health care professionals learned how to use the inventory to find a spectrum of initiatives from one focused on behavioral health interventions in community settings in Central Massachusetts to another aimed at chronic disease education provided by a hospital in the Southcoast.
Health Optimist, LLC, Managing Partner
Founder & CEO, Flowetik
Chief Behavioral Health Officer, Lynn Community Health Center
Executive Director, Massachusetts Business Roundtable
Chief Medical Officer, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program
Dean and Robert Knox Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Chief Academic Officer, Kristine M. Trusty Endowed Chair in Psychiatry Chief, Division of Women's Mental Health Director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse, Clinical and Health Services Research, McLean Hospital
Vice President, Business Development Trinity Financial
Vice President of Mission & Associate Chief Medical Officer, Boston Medical Center
Independent Consultant
Chief Medical Officer, Press Ganey
Senior Consultant, John Snow Inc.
Strategic Policy Director, Community Catalyst
Chief Medical Officer & Sr. Vice President, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
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