On January 9, 2026, the Providers’ Council submitted testimony to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) on the proposed rates for 101 CMR 15.00: Criminal Offender Record Checks.
Council President and CEO, Bill Yelenak, presented testimony in opposition to the proposed changes to the regulation; this regulation was published for the first time on Friday, December 19 without input from the provider community and makes significant changes that would impact our members’ ability to hire individuals who have lived experience in programs. The Council asked EOHHS to have a dialogue with providers to discuss this unintended consequence before publishing these regulations for final adoption.
You can read the Council’s full testimony here.
In response, EOHHS has extended the deadline to submit written comments for 101 CMR 15.00: Criminal Offender Record Checks until 5:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, 2026. (original deadline: by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, January 9, 2026).
You can view the notice and the corresponding regulations at https://www.mass.gov/service-details/executive-office-of-health-and-human-services-public-hearings.
To submit written testimony, please email your testimony to ehs-regulations@mass.gov as an attached Word or PDF document or as text within the body of the email with the name of the regulation in the subject line.
Please reach out to Caroline O’Neill with any questions.
Back to All News