Testimony concerning H1094 before the Joint Committee on Financial Services on December 5, 2023
Speaker 1 - Representative Paul McMurtry
Good morning, Mr. Chair, and members of the committee. Thank you so much. I really appreciate the opportunity to be here today to testify on behalf of House 1094. As you can see, both Senator Rush and I are committed to this process, committed to the individuals that will be here today advocating the bill. And I'm going to limit my conversation and let Senator Rush make a comment and then we're going to pass it off to Tom Healey, a constituent of us from Dedham and one of the founding members of the organization that's formed out of the overall process.
And also we have Dr. Mark Ferraris, our chief of oral ecology and head of neck surgery at Maci in this bill has been a multi-year process. We've filed it session after session. It's got the favorable report of this committee and what we have today is an opportunity for us as legislators to make a difference for individuals who have already gone through a significant trauma relating to medical conditions, cancer primarily, and which is covered by medical insurance, but then the result of the dental needs are not covered.
Our friend here went to radiation therapy for carcinoma. It caused significant complications. The treatment that he suffered remains uncovered and he's committed himself and himself to making a difference not only for what started out an effort with Senator Rush and I on his behalf, but for others. And again, as I mentioned previously, the organization that was born out of this process is called MOPS, a massachusetts oncology patient, survivor, survivors and supporters.
You're going to hear from individuals today. We're going to share a lot of personal stories. And I have met with them. I've heard their stories. I feel their pain. And again, look to us in the legislature for an opportunity to make a difference. And we do believe that the timing is right. And this is something that we hope will have a favorable report.
I said I'd be limited and I apologize that I wasn't. But I want to turn over to my good friend and colleague, Senator Rush.
Speaker 2 - Senator Rush
And I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman and members of the committee. It's a pleasure to be with you this morning. And I'm I'm here because Representative McMURTRY, as we all know, is an extremely passionate advocate for constituents. And this is an issue that came to his attention. He in turn brought it to my attention and certainly we learned a lot in the process and continue to learn a lot in the process.
But Mr. Healey has done an unbelievable job in taking his personal experience and relating it to others throughout the Commonwealth to form this incredible network. So you're going to hear from him and others today, as I mentioned, and again here to be fully supportive of the legislative endeavor and to to try to get this to the governor's desk this session.
Speaker 3 - Tom Healy
Thank you so much. Thank you to Chair Murphy and Chair Feeney and the members of the Joint Committee on Financial Services for allowing me to come in and testify today. My name is Thomas Healey, and I retired town of Dedham. I just want you to know I wrote at least three, four times. What am I going to say to you?
I woke up at 4:47 this morning. I think my brain was spent spending all night saying, what do I what am I going to say? And because it's so much to say. So whatever I wrote down, I'm here we go. it's been a long year for our group, but it's been a very productive year. We, the Massachusetts net cancer survivors and supporters, also known as Lops, who are stopped, were taken to say that last year we had three letters of support.
We were able to advance House Bill 1154 over to the Joint Committee on Financial Joint Health Care Committee and Joint Care on Financial Services. And we hope to do that again this year.
So I hope we take the time you take the time to read those very supportive and put in important documents that we've submitted to you, because we have in those letters, we have support from all the way down the Cape, from Cape Cod, health care to the western part of the state UMass Memorial, and many more, including the Boston area - Mass. General Dana-Farber and many others.
Massachusetts House Bill 1094 will require insurers, insurers doing business in our state to provide coverage for medical related dental treatments. I'd like to read into the record the statement I wrote in 2020 before the Financial Services Committee on House Bill number 1053. This affects thousands of people in our state.
If something is not done to expand coverage to procedures as a medical necessity in the near future, there will be thousands of people going through the doors at all of the ecology treatment centers or hospitals who either otherwise will face unaffordable health risk. I'm asking you today to advance House Bill number 1094. Like we did last year over to the Joint Committee on Health and Financial Services.
And lastly, I'd like to thank all my new friends and with us today, we've done so much hard work to date.
I want to say one more thing. We're only going to get bigger. We started out as one. We went to three. Theoretically, our group is up to 30. Hospitals or other institutions in the state like to match society of our Golgi galaxy. Society of Oncology Oncologist. And much of this. If this doesn't work this year, there's 159 hospitals across the state.
Not one hospital that I've reached out to over the last two years has said no. That's telling me that's how long this goes on. We will have all 159 hospitals. I'm hoping that we can somehow get the mindset of the regulatory agencies here in the state House to take a great look at it and say, let's see what we can really do.
So I thank you for your time. Thank you so much.
Speaker 5 - Dr Mark Bavares
Good morning. My name is Mark Bavares, a head and neck surgeon at the Massachusetts Allen Infirmary. I'm the chair of the Department of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. Chief of the service at Mount Sinai here. And chief of the service at Mass General Hospital. I really appreciate the committee's time and attention to this very important matter this morning. Just take a moment to say I'm also a cancer patient.
I'm in the middle of treatment for acute myeloid leukemia, had a bone marrow transplant 103 days ago. But this this issue is important enough for me to get out of quarantine and come and talk with you this morning. I've been taking care of head neck cancer patients for over 30 years, and I've watched them struggle with this issue of dental coverage.
It's very often the case that one cannot separate dental issues from medical issues in the care of the head neck cancer patient. This challenge comes in many different forms. Here's a couple of examples. Many of our patients, as you know, have to have radiation therapy as part of the treatment. It's life saving that therapy comes at a cost.
And I'm not talking about financial costs. We're here to talk about finances that talk. It also brings other issues down the road that directly affect their dental care and the dental health. So before radiation therapy, patients need to have a full dental evaluation and many times have to have dental extractions done. Sometimes a full mouth extraction, which can be very, very expensive.
Many patients can't afford it. Insurance oftentimes doesn't cover it. So many times patients forego dental care that's necessary before radiation and therefore don't get the radiation that they need. Have a patient in the last two years that fits this exact scenario. He had major surgery on his tongue to remove a cancer. He was referred for radiation therapy. The radiation therapist appropriately said you need to have done look dental care done.
He went to a dentist. It was going to be thousands of dollars to get his teeth pulled prior to radiation. He just didn't do it. Didn't get the radiation presented to us with a raging recurrence. Fortunately, he was able to undergo chemo radiotherapy and right now is disease free. But we know treating cancer the second time around is not as successful as the first time around.
So this lack of coverage for patients to get basic dental care before their head neck cancer treatment is threatening their survival. Something has got to be done about it. We see it over and over again. Here's another scenario I'd like everybody in the room just to take their tongue and touch it to the top of their mouth. Okay, so the roof of the mouth is the floor of the nose.
We have many patients with cancer. Either of the palate, the roof of the mouth or the floor of the nose. In order to secure that cancer, we have to remove that common wall. Well, guess what? That means you have a hole that goes from your mouth to your nose. Okay. This can be easily managed with something called a surgical arbitrator.
It's like a denture that pops in your mouth. These cost tens of thousands of dollars. I've had patients say they had to mortgage their home in order to get this covered. Patients should not have to do that. So in closing, all I'd ask is the head neck cancer patient should be able to focus on getting better, not on worrying about getting coverage or paying their dental and medical bills.
So I implore you, please pass. 1049 So our head neck cancer patients can worry about getting better and not worrying about how they're going to pay their bills. Thank you.
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