Gov. Maura Healey signs the HERO Act into law. Here's what it means for Massachusetts veterans (2024)

LEXINGTON — Gov. Maura Healey signed off Thursday on a new veterans' benefits law dubbed the "HERO Act" that she touted as "a big deal," while Veterans' Services Secretary Jon Santiago told a packed town hall that the Holyoke Veterans Home had been awarded licensure by the Department of Public Health.

Among the law's provisions is a boost to the annuity granted by the state to Gold Star parents and spouses — those who have lost their loved one in the service — stepping up the grant to $2,500. Its annual $2,000 rate had not been updated in decades.

Santiago recalled meeting Holly Shay, a Gold Star mother whose son, U.S. Army Sgt. Jordan Shay, was killed in Iraq. He told the crowd that, after meeting her, he realized the amount of the Gold Star annuity had not been touched in around 20 years.

With Healey's signature, the law also gets rid of what Santiago called "bureaucratic" aspects of the Veterans Service Buyback Program, which veterans entering a public employee job had to apply for within 180 days. Sen. John Velis explained during the Senate session that produced the final bill that it eliminates the 180-day window to enter the program and buy back military time, and offers a grace period for those who have missed out.

Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts legislative agent Paul Jacques is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force who served two tours in Iraq. He said the law will "help a lot of people" including police and fire department employees who missed out on their buybacks.

"As we all know, in the first 180 days of anyone's career, when you're a younger person, especially getting out of the military ... you're not thinking about retirement," Jacques told the News Service. He added, "Where I work in Attleboro, we have members on there, that this is going to be life-changing for them."

The law expands veterans' access to mental health services, which an existing benefits law — Chapter 115 — does not give veterans reimbursem*nt for. The new law provides for a "behavioral health assistance benefit" that will offer "coverage for the cost of those necessary outpatient behavioral health assessments, evaluations, visits, prescriptions and other such treatment as the secretary shall determine through regulations."

It also opens the door for veterans who served as military medics, now pursuing a civilian EMT job, to potentially be able to skip EMT training and move straight to taking the test.

Healey touted the new law as "the most comprehensive veterans' legislation to come out of this state ever, probably."

The bill is one of just a handful of substantive policy packages the Legislature has handed to Healey over the last year and a half. The governor said she and Santiago chose to come to Lexington to sign the bill because the town is a "special" place.

"You know, 250 years ago, the whole American experiment, our American democracy, our country, was born here," she said, earning cheers from an auditorium that also featured local officials like Lexington select board and town meeting members.

Holyoke Veterans Home

The state-run facility in Holyoke was plagued by scandal in 2020 after a deadly COVID-19 outbreak killed more than 70 veterans living there. Reform of the system was spurred on by a 2022 law, which mandated that both the Holyoke and Chelsea veterans homes achieve DPH licensure.

"It's hot off the press that both of those homes are now licensed by the Department of Public Health, something that people thought was unimaginable, impossible after COVID-19," Santiago told attendees at the bill-signing ceremony.

The Chelsea Veterans Home achieved DPH licensure last year, which was announced by EOVS at the same time that the first 20 residents moved into a newly-constructed building there.

Speaking from the stage in Lexington's Cary Memorial Building before the signing, Healey said that "we are so blessed as a nation."

"That men and women are willing to serve, are willing to enlist, are willing to sign up and answer that call. We're also so lucky that the families are willing to support their loved ones as they do their service, knowing, as for some in this room, that they may not return," she said.