---
type: "Bill"
title: "An Act to protect access to confidential healthcare"
description: "Senate, February 8, 2018 -- The committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the Senate Bill to protect access to confidential healthcare (Senate, No. 591),-- reports, recommending that the same ought to pass with an amendment substituting a new draft with the same title (Senate, No. 2296)."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ma"
legislature: "Massachusetts General Court"
session: "190th"
identifier: "S 2296"
citation: "Massachusetts S 2296 (190th)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Senate Committee on Ways and Means"]
version_count: 1
action_count: 25
vote_count: 0
first_action: "2018-02-08"
last_action: "2018-03-30"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/1a2b5535-d4bb-4160-994a-dd891d0ac979"
source_url: "https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/S2296"
source_hash: "4919149f16e2373d71ce65d8f96c98727f1d4edf44fcffd04f3902b5d1afd67f"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ma"]
---

# Massachusetts S 2296 (190th) — An Act to protect access to confidential healthcare

Senate, February 8, 2018 -- The committee on Ways and Means, to whom was referred the Senate Bill to protect access to confidential healthcare (Senate, No. 591),-- reports, recommending that the same ought to pass with an amendment substituting a new draft with the same title (Senate, No. 2296).

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Bill Text** (committee substitute) — [source](https://malegislature.gov/Bills/190/S2296.pdf)

## Sponsors

- Senate Committee on Ways and Means — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2018-02-08** Reported from the committee on Senate Ways and Means
- **2018-02-08** Recommended new draft of S591
- **2018-02-14** Substituted for S591
- **2018-02-14** Amendment #2 (Tarr) adopted `amendment-passage`
- **2018-02-14** Amendment #3 (Spilka) adopted `amendment-passage`
- **2018-02-14** Ordered to a third reading
- **2018-02-14** Read third and passed to be engrossed `reading-3`
- **2018-02-15** Read; and referred to the committee on House Ways and Means `referral-committee`
- **2018-02-28** Committee recommended ought to pass with an amendment and referred to the committee on House Steering, Policy and Scheduling `referral-committee, committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-28** Committee reported that the matter be placed in the Orders of the Day for the next sitting with the amendment (H4256) pending
- **2018-02-28** Rules suspended
- **2018-02-28** Read second, amended by substitution of a new text (H4256) and ordered to a third reading `reading-2`
- **2018-02-28** Rules suspended
- **2018-02-28** Read third `reading-3`
- **2018-02-28** Amendment 4 adopted `amendment-passage`
- **2018-02-28** Amendment 5 rejected `amendment-failure`
- **2018-02-28** Passed to be engrossed - 139 YEAS to 14 NAYS (See YEA and NAY in Supplement, No. 313) `passage`
- **2018-03-15** Rules suspended
- **2018-03-15** Senate concurred in the House amendment with a further amendment -see Roll Call #329 (Yeas 38 to Nays 0)
- **2018-03-19** Referred to the committee on Bills in the Third Reading `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-21** Rules suspended
- **2018-03-21** House concurred in the Senate amendment
- **2018-03-22** Enacted `passage`
- **2018-03-22** Enacted and laid before the Governor `passage`
- **2018-03-30** Signed by the Governor, Chapter 63 of the Acts of 2018 `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/1a2b5535-d4bb-4160-994a-dd891d0ac979`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Massachusetts legislature records).