SENATE DOCKET, NO. 3132        FILED ON: 3/29/2024

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No.         

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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PRESENTED BY:

Paul R. Feeney

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To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act establishing medical panels for the probate and family court department.

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PETITION OF:

SENATE DOCKET, NO. 3132        FILED ON: 3/29/2024

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No.         

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)

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An Act establishing medical panels for the probate and family court department.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

Chapter 215 of the General Laws is hereby amended by adding the following section:-

Section 6D. (a) The chief justice of the probate and family court department shall establish a procedure for convening a medical panel to assist in the determination of any relevant or potentially relevant medical issue raised in any proceeding before the court in which there is a contested petition for the appointment of a guardian or conservator of a minor or incapacitated person, or for custody of a minor. or any request to modify the existing custody or guardianship arrangement. The medical panel may review medical and other relevant records designated by the parties, examine the minor or incapacitated person and issue a certificate answering questions set forth in subsection (e) to assure that decisions in cases raising material medical issues are as medically informed as possible.

(b) The chief justice, in consultation with the Massachusetts Medical Society, shall recruit and maintain a pool of physicians to serve on medical panels. Recruited physicians shall be licensed to practice medicine in the commonwealth and skilled in branches of medicine relevant to the capacities, limitations, needs, opportunities, and physical and mental health of minors or incapacitated persons.

(c) Upon a party’s granted petition to the presiding judge for a medical examination or the presiding judge’s order for a medical examination, the chief justice shall appoint no fewer than 3 physicians from the pool to serve on a medical panel.  The court shall issue to the parties a notice stating the medical panel members selected for the specific matter at hand and their respective medical specialties.

(d) A physician selected from the pool by the chief justice to serve on a medical panel shall not be an associated physician, as defined in section 6 of chapter 32, and shall not have previously treated the incapacitated person or minor for whom a guardianship or conservatorship is proposed or examined or served on a panel that previously examined and evaluated, for any purpose, such person or minor.

(e)  Within 30 days after completing an examination pursuant to this section, or within such other time as the court may order for good cause upon the medical panel’s request, the medical panel shall issue a written, supporting report establishing its answer to each of the following questions is unanimous or, if not unanimous, by each of the members of the panel majority and minority members:

(i) whether the minor or incapacitated person has, for reasons other than advanced age or minority, a clinically diagnosed condition that results in an inability to receive and evaluate information or make and communicate decisions to such an extent that the individual lacks the ability to meet essential requirements for physical health, safety or self-care, even with appropriate technological assistance; 

(ii) whether the clinically diagnosed condition is likely to be permanent; and

(iii) whether there is a less restrictive means of providing the health, safety or self-care the minor or incapacitated person requires, taking into account generally accepted medical treatment and practice, and appropriate technological assistance including the use of equipment or computer hardware and software that may increase or improve the minor or incapacitated person’s capacity and ability to become more independent, and whether there are ways to minimize potentially toxic medications or physical restraints which impair the quality of life and capacity for enjoyment while still ensuring the individuals’ safety.

The medical panel shall attach to their report a certificate certifying that their findings were arrived at independently of each other and free of undue influence of any kind.

Within the same time period, the person to be examined, or that person's counsel, shall file and serve a statement of that person's preference for a simultaneous examination by the panel or separate examinations by each of the panel members. 

(g) The administrator of the medical panel program shall use best efforts to assure compliance with applicable time limits, any of which may be modified for good cause.

(h) Upon success completion of service on a court-appointed medical panel, each panel member shall receive a certification of panel service denoting the dates of service.