Twenty-eight months after COVID-19 tore through the Holyoke Soldiers' Home and leaders fumbled the response with deadly consequences, House and Senate lawmakers agreed Wednesday on a bill that would overhaul oversight, management requirements and crisis response at state-run long-term care facilities for veterans.
A conference committee tasked with resolving differences in each branch's reform bill filed a report Wednesday, setting up floor votes on a measure that caps off nearly four months of private negotiations and close to a year of legislative investigation.
The final bill would impose new governance structures for the Holyoke and Chelsea Soldiers' Homes, elevate the secretary of veterans' services to a Cabinet-level position, create new licensing requirements for the facilities and their top leaders, and stand up a statewide advisory council and local panels for each home.
"Nothing can alleviate the pain of the families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home, but we can ensure that we act to prevent a similar tragedy in the future," House Speaker Ron Mariano, Senate President Karen Spilka, and lead conferees Rep. Joseph Wagner and Sen. Michael Rush said in the statement.
The bill calls for creation of a statewide Massachusetts Veterans' Homes Advisory Council to focus on the unique needs of the Holyoke and Chelsea facilities and the veterans they serve as well as local boards of trustees. It would also launch an Office of Veterans' Homes and Housing within the executive branch, which would be tasked with overseeing veteran housing matters and hiring full-time ombudspeople to receive and investigate resident and staff complaints in each facility.
Embracing the Senate's approach on a pressure point that distinguished the two underlying bills (H 4441 / S 2761), the conference committee bill pulls the Department of Veterans' Services out from under the umbrella of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and makes DVS its own Cabinet-level executive office.
Supporters say that move will give the secretary of veterans' services more bandwidth to respond to needs at soldiers' homes and a direct line of communication and accountability to the governor.
"My guiding principle throughout this entire thing was we need to pass some type of legislative package that goes a way — a long way — towards ensuring that something like this doesn't happen again,” said State Sen. John Velis, D- Westfield, a member of the conference committee which hammered out the compromise. "I think we've done that.”
John Paradis is a former deputy superintendent at the Holyoke Soldiers' Home and co-founded an advocacy group for the home. He said the conversation can not just stop at governance issues covered in the bill.
"To me, unless there is a real hard look at staffing, how to build a new culture within state government, not just at the soldiers' home, but one that respects communication and transparency, I'm afraid this legislation will be more eye candy," he said.
Paradis said a working group monitoring implementation of the bill will be key in making sure it has the desired impact. Velis said he’s been tabbed to lead the group by Spilka.
NEPM's Adam Frenier contributed to this report.