Tag: Massachusetts

  • In MA, Doctors’ Day becomes rallying point for health care reform

    While Doctors’ Day has traditionally celebrated physicians’ contributions — specically the date of the first use of general anesthesia in surgery by Dr. Crawford W. Long on March 30, 1842 — this year Massachusetts physicians are redefining it as a platform for advocacy.

    Facing federal funding cuts and growing primary care shortages, Massachusetts physicians met with legislators on March 25 at the State House to call for urgent policy action. Physicians from the Massachusetts Medical Society gathered for their first in-person Doctors’ Day since before
    the COVID-19 pandemic to advocate for bills to increase primary care access, improve childhood immunization rates, and bolster protections for immigrant health care access.

    The renewed urgency comes as the “Big Beautiful Bill,” passed by Congress last July, is expected to cut $3.5 billion annually from federal health care funding to Massachusetts. The cuts amount to about 5% of the state’s proposed total budget for fiscal 2027. This will lead to about 326,000 residents losing health care insurance coverage, according to a minority report of the Joint Economic Committee, based on a report by the Congressional Budget Office. “I’m proud of the advocacy this day represents, but I encourage you to do more,” Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, the state’s secretary of Health and Human Services, told physicians. Mahaniah emphasized that physicians play a critical role in clinical care, but must also advocate for the broader health care system throughout the state.

    An aging workforce means a shrinking workforce

    Access to primary care physicians has been declining across Massachusetts, and is expected to face greater threats as cuts to Medicaid take effect later this year, according to a recent re-
    port by NPR. More than half of in-office physicians are age 55 or older, raising concerns about a shrinking workforce, according to Mahaniah.

    State Sen. Cindy Friedman, D-Arlington, co-chair of the Legislature’s Committee on Health Care Financing, highlighted the growing strain on the system, as colleagues consistently ask her, “Can you help me get a primary care physician?” Friedman championed several of the bills discussed at the March 25 event.

    Throughout the state, primary care represents a small and declining share of total health care spending. This leads to increased strain on emergency departments, according to a presentation from Mass. Medical Society reps.

    Physicians advocated for the future of their profession by promoting passage of several bills designed to strengthen primary care access.

    Among those proposals is one that would double the investment in primary care over four years, with a target of at least 12% of total health care spending allocated to primary care departments. It would also establish a primary care stabilization fund to deliver payments directly to practices, an idea that Mahaniah and other speakers advocated for throughout the meeting.

    Physicians also raised concerns about administrative burdens tied to insurance companies’ prior authorization requirements, an issue they say leads to unnecessary costs and often causes pa-
    patients to forgo needed treatment.

    The bill, aimed at reducing delays in patient care and administrative burden, would strengthen oversight and improve timely access to treatment.

    Addressing declines in vaccination rates

    In addition to administrative and industry issues, physicians also advocated for pressing public health concerns as nationwide threats to vaccine and immigration policies begin to take effect
    in Massachusetts.

    In early January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reduced the number of recommended vaccines for children. Massachusetts has seen declines in vaccination rates in recent years, as well as a record high number of non-medical religious exemptions, according to the Mass. Medical Society.

    In some school communities, vaccination rates have dropped below herd immunity thresholds — the point at which enough people in an area have protection from a disease that it no longer spreads easily, according to the Mass. Medical Society. Vaccination ex-
    emption rates among kindergarten students are rising in central and western counties, with 1.6% exempt in Worcester County and 2.7% in Hampden County. In Middlesex County, 1.2% of students had exemptions, while in Suffolk County the rate was 0.8% for the 2024-25 school year, according to the Department of Public Health.

    Another proposal would require all public and private schools to report immunization data annually to the Department of Public Health, while ensuring that necessary medical exemptions are maintained.

    Physicians also advocated for a provision in a supplemental budget proposal, offered by Gov. Maura Healey, that calls for protecting health care facilities from civil immigration enforce-
    ment actions, with the goal of reducing appointment cancellations and no-shows. The bill would restrict immigration agents’ access to health care facilities, requiring a judicial warrant to en-
    ter medical facilities.

    The House-approved PROTECT Act would restrict local law enforcement’s cooperation with ICE. However, the act does not designate health care facilities as sensitive locations.

  • Lexington teen earns $90,000 scholarship at national science and math competition

    Lexington teen earns $90,000 scholarship at national science and math competition

    Jerry Xu is pictured with his project poster at the Regeneron Science Talent Search 2026. / Credit: Regeneron Science Talent Search

    Lexington High School senior Jerry Xu believes that science can be approached in two ways. The first is through a textbook; the second is by making it come to life around you.

    Xu, 17, chose the second path. On March 10, he earned a $90,000 scholarship for placing fifth at the Regeneron Science Talent Search, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious science research competition for high school seniors. Xu created an Artificial Intelligence model that compares the three-dimensional structure of proteins, the molecules that build and repair tissue in the human body. From more than 2,000 applicants, judges selected him as one of 40 finalists to present independent research at the Regeneron Science Talent Institute in Washington, D.C.

    Genetic and medical researchers compare protein structures to understand how molecules function. Small variations in shape can alter a protein’s behavior and trigger disease. Xu’s tool reduced the time needed to analyze proteins from hours to minutes by converting them into correlated numerical patterns of the same size, rather than the current methods, which compare proteins of different sizes.

    Xu’s finish in the Regeneron competition is the highlight of a high school career defined by accomplishment. Last October, he led a team that created an AI chatbot that answers questions about the Lexington High School building project. He co-founded a summer lecture series that teaches biology and math to students of all ages, tutored programming students at the KTBYTE academy in Burlington, and captained the Lexington High School Science Bowl team to a regional championship.

    “I think that as a high schooler, using [science] in my community is one of the easiest and most impactful ways for me to apply my knowledge,” Xu said. “I’m really grateful that the town of Lexington is willing to accept me and try to guide me towards designing these products that are going to help the community.”

    ​Xu devoted the past year to researching, developing and coding his model through the MIT PRIMES Program, a year-long curriculum that offers research resources to high school students in the Boston area under the mentorship of Dr. Gil Alterovitz and Dr. Shaojun Pei, both of Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

    “One thing that really struck me is [Jerry’s] passion, his ability to think about things deeply and think about how to explore things at a deep level,” Alterovitz said. 

    Xu hopes researchers and scientists will use his tool to improve protein genetic analysis. He plans to continue working on the model after the competition.

    “There’s a couple of ideas that I have for my project. One of them is to expand the scale of my model,” he said. “There’s a lot of different directions that I want to explore with this project before I head off to college.”

    Xu plans to use the $90,000 scholarship toward college. He’s considering the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, California Institute of Technology, Yale University, and other schools. Before he makes his decision, Xu will prepare for the National Science Bowl in April and his approaching high school graduation. 

    This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Lexington Observer and other news organizations in the Boston area.

  • Newton Energy Commission launches survey to understand barriers to home electrification

    Newton Energy Commission launches survey to understand barriers to home electrification

    Solar panels. Public domain photo

    The city of Newton aims to become carbon neutral by 2050, but reaching that goal will require transforming nearly 25,000 homes into fully electric households. And environmental advocates say it starts with something basic: knowing what’s actually inside people’s homes.

    To gain a better understanding of what’s being used in Newton homes, the Newton Energy Commission—in partnership with Green Newton, 350 Mass Newton, and Mother’s Out Front Newton—launched a survey aimed at single-family homeowners. 

    “There’s a lot of conversation at the policy level—both for the city and the state—about this subject, and a lot of it is quite honestly uninformed by what’s the current state,” said Jon Slote, a volunteer member of the Newton Energy Commission and a retired solar engineer. “We wanted to take an objective view and find that out.”

    Slote said the survey is designed to answer two fundamental questions: What heating sources and appliances are Newton residents using, and what is stopping them from switching to electric alternatives.

    Massachusetts has been working toward this kind of transformation for years. In 2008 the state passed the Global Warming Solutions Act and in 2021 updated the act to set a goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at least 57% below their 1990 levels by 2030. According to Massachusetts Clean Energy and Climate Metrics, residential fuel combustion remains one of the key factors the state must address in order to complete its climate goal.

    Judy Jacobs, executive director of Green Newton, said the survey is as much about fixing poor-quality data as it is about gathering new data. “Right now, the decisions are being made with incomplete or overly conservative data,” she said, “And in some cases those costs are being estimated much higher than the real cost.”

    For Jacobs, better data means better outcomes for residents. “We really want to get the data we need about costs and barriers and help that inform decisions so that it ultimately benefits Newton residents,” she said.

    That data could ultimately shape how residents heat, power and cook in their homes in the years ahead.

    “One of the things that’s pretty clear, when we think about carbon neutrality, is you need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that are being produced by everything we do on a day-to-day basis,” Slote said. “All of us who live in homes in Newton, over time, we need to think about replacing gas and oil and propane uses with electricity.”

    The survey, which went live March 16, asks homeowners about their heating systems, hot water, cooking appliances, dryers and other energy uses. The survey is funded by a $3,000 microgrant from the Village Bank, which will help cover costs to mail surveys to Newton residents. 

    Additionally — to encourage participation — three respondents will be randomly selected to win free gift cards ranging from $50 to $250. Residents who complete the survey can also request a free consultation with one of the city’s volunteer energy consultants.

    For some Newton residents, the survey won’t be necessary. They’ve already decided to switch to all-electric products. 

    Rachel White has fully electrified her home after years of gradual changes. She began with her stove, then tackled heating and hot water in 2023 when her central air conditioning system was failing.

    “The motivation for doing that was that I really wanted to reduce exposure to the emissions associated with gas while cooking,” she said.

    White said one unexpected benefit was the quiet. “The air blows so smoothly and slowly from heat pump systems that they’re barely noticeable when they’re operational,” she said.

    She also acknowledges cost as a legitimate concern but says she breaks it into two categories—upfront costs and operating costs—and says the investment has been worth it. White said solar panels, which she installed alongside the heat pump system, have helped offset rising electricity costs. 

    “For folks who do have good solar exposure, the solar panels pair really, really nicely with an all-electric house,” she said.

    Debra Kriensky had a similar experience. Eight years ago, she and her family moved to a Newton home that ran mostly on oil —something she described as both expensive and frustratingly loud.

    “Even within our first year we were like, ‘We would love to do something about this and get off oil,’” she said. “Not just because of the environmental concerns, but also it was expensive and the prices kept changing.”

    Like White, Kriensky replaced appliances gradually throughout her time living in her home rather than doing it all at once. 

    Kriensky said she discovered heat pumps through a Green Newton webinar. “I’m grateful for organizations like Green Newton, for example, because if I hadn’t randomly come across one of their webinars on heat pumps, I don’t know that I would’ve even known about it as an option.”

    Her family has since gone fully electric and recently added solar panels to manage expensive electric bills.

    “Our home has been much more comfortable—everything’s been quieter,” Kriensky said. “I definitely think it was worth it.”

    Slote said he hopes the survey will help to inform further conversations about electrifying homes in Newton. “We’re very excited about the notion of trying to find some neighborhoods where people would like to collectively electrify and get off the gas system,” he said. “And we want to be a big support for that.”

    If you’re a single-family homeowner and are interested in filling out the survey, click here. 

    ****

    This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Cambridge company helps White House track drug usage trends through wastewater

    Cambridge company helps White House track drug usage trends through wastewater

    MWRA’s Deer Island Wastewater Treatment Plant in Boston, Massachusetts. Credit: Courtesy of Massachusetts Water Resources Authority

    Biobot Analytics has a contract with the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

    A Cambridge wastewater analytics company is working with the White House to analyze wastewater data that helps monitoring drug use nationwide.

    Biobot Analytics is providing the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy with wastewater data from communities across the country to help identify emerging substance use trends. Federal spending records show the project began in September 2025 under a one-year contract worth $615,700.

    Wastewater epidemiology analyzes sewage samples at treatment facilities where researchers can estimate levels of drugs such as fentanyl or cocaine used across entire cities.

    “The goal of wastewater epidemiology is to understand community-level health,” said Marisa Donnelly, director of epidemiology at Biobot Analytics. “If you want to know how healthy a community is, you can look at wastewater to understand what viruses, pathogens or substances are circulating.”

    Compared with traditional public health reporting methods, the biggest advantage of wastewater data is speed. Because traces of substances appear in sewage shortly after they are metabolized, researchers can detect changes in community drug use within days.

    “If you’re a local health department trying to track overdoses in your community, you might not get those numbers until months later by clinical reports or toxicology data,” Donnelly said. “With wastewater, we can see those trends within business days, allowing communities to understand what’s changing much earlier than traditional data sources.”

    According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the agency’s National Wastewater Surveillance System collects data from about 1,500 monitoring sites across the country each week. Biobot’s federal partnership focuses specifically on tracking substances linked to drug use, including opioids such as fentanyl and stimulant drugs.

    Cambridge Day reached out to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to ask how Biobot was selected and what the agency hopes to achieve through the partnership, but did not receive a response.

    Biobot, founded by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and based in Cambridge, has analyzed wastewater samples for public health monitoring in Massachusetts.

    “We have a network of sites in Massachusetts that we work with regularly, and those communities send us wastewater samples that we analyze to track trends,” Donnelly said. “Expanding that network is really important so that communities across the country are represented and can see what’s happening in their own data.”

    Donnelly said the data can help public health officials detect shifts in drug consumption earlier and decide where treatment resources may be needed most, rather than responding only after problems emerge.

    “Sharing that data nationally allows public health partners to see changes in substance use earlier and respond more quickly,” she said.

    Because wastewater samples are collected at treatment facilities serving thousands of residents, the data reflects trends across entire communities rather than individual behavior.

    “Wastewater is inherently anonymous,” Donnelly said. “When we sample at a wastewater treatment facility, we’re collecting wastewater from thousands of people at once, so we can’t identify individuals. We can only track trends in community substance use.”

    Beyond drug monitoring, wastewater analysis can also track a range of infectious diseases circulating in communities. Researchers can test sewage for viruses such as influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and measles, allowing public health officials to monitor outbreaks even when many cases go unreported.

    “Wastewater is probably best known for how it was used to track COVID-19,” Donnelly said. “People shed viruses through bodily fluids even before symptoms appear, which means wastewater can sometimes detect rising infection levels before cases appear in traditional reporting systems.”

    As wastewater monitoring expands nationwide, public health officials may increasingly use the technology to identify emerging health threats, from infectious disease outbreaks to shifts in drug use.

    “What wastewater really gives us is a way to see what’s happening in community health in near real time,” Donnelly said. “Our goal has always been to give communities a clearer, faster picture of what’s happening in their population’s health.”

    This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Revere Veterans Food Pantry sees a rise in need

    Revere Veterans Food Pantry sees a rise in need

    Every first Wednesday of the month, residents drive to the back of the American Legion building in Revere to receive their share of canned vegetables, pasta, rice and meat from the Veterans Food Pantry. That was no different on a recent day — except a steady incline of need in the line.

    “[The need] has steadily increased in the last couple of months,” said Donna Dreeszen, the pantry’s founder, in an interview. “We have a lot of younger veterans that we typically didn’t have before.”

    Dreeszen started the pantry on an upstairs floor of the American Legion building in 2012 with just 37 clients; today that number is nearly 500, she said.

    Food insecurity among veterans has become a pressing issue since the global pandemic and the government shutdown in the fall. More than 21,000 recipients of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in Massachusetts are veterans, according to the state’s website.

    Dreeszen said she founded the pantry after seeing many veterans struggle with food insecurity. But when the pantry first opened, few people came. She said she worked hard to persuade veterans to take advantage of the service.

    “I would ask the veterans, ‘Why didn’t you come to the food pantry?’ and they were like, ‘I don’t need it,’ even though some did,” said Dreeszen recently as she pored over a spreadsheet of the pantry’s statistics.

    Eventually, she said, the veterans began to come. Danny Hernandez, the pantry’s manager, said he and his staff began using targeted advertising to reach veterans, and the results have led to an increase in the number of people using the pantry.

    On the eve of the monthly food pantry, Hernandez, the staff and volunteers start preparing for distribution day. This includes designating specific areas to sort the food. The next day, volunteers arrive early, around 6 a.m., to receive deliveries from The Greater Boston Food Bank and stock large shopping bags provided by Wegmans. The pantry also receives fresh greens and other produce from Olivia’s Organics in Chelsea, said Dreeszen.

    Volunteers say they are driven to help. “It was only natural to be able to volunteer and give back,’’ said Carol Pizziferri, a volunteer for the past 10 years whose father served in World War II.

    She said that when the pantry was upstairs it was challenging for both volunteers and clients to get the bags to their cars. But now, the drive-up system has made things much better, especially for the elderly clients, she added.

    “It’s much easier than waiting for people, especially upstairs,” said Pizziferri. “And so now… basically, [you] come in your car, [we] put the bags in, and they check you off and see you later.”

    William Reedy, a volunteer who is also a veteran, said the pantry does what it can for the people it serves. “We all help one another,” Reedy said. “[If] anybody needs anything, they can always call us.”

  • Local pharmacies adapt, push back against corporate stores

    Local pharmacies adapt, push back against corporate stores

    As the pharmacy business has shifted, smaller stores have closed and corporations like CVS and Walgreens have taken over. But Robert Skenderian, third-generation owner of Skenderian Apothecary, says these chains aren’t his biggest competitor: It’s benefit management companies, also known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).

    Skenderian and his two brothers, like their father and grandfather before them, have been serving communities in Cambridge and beyond from the corner of Cambridge Street and Roberts Road. For more than 60 years they’ve filled prescriptions, provided medical supplies and given medicinal advice. But as the years pass, small, locally owned pharmacies like theirs are grappling with a system that benefits large corporations and drives traditional pharmacies to closure.

    “The absolute number of pharmacies in the country are shrinking across the board. Whether you’re a chain store, whether you’re independent, there are fewer and fewer every day because they can’t afford to stay in business,” Skenderian said. “It’s going to continue to happen because the benefit management companies don’t really care whether you can get your prescription filled or not. They only care that they get to keep all of the pie.”

    The PBMs serve as middlemen between insurers, drug companies and pharmacies. They hold major responsibilities — negotiating rebates and discounts with manufacturers, handling claims, developing lists of covered medications for different plans. PBMs also reimburse pharmacies after dispensing patient medications.

    Massachusetts has 38 licensed PBMs. Three of them manage nearly 80% of the prescription drug claims in the United States: OptumRx, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth; CVS’s Caremark; and Express Scripts, a subsidiary of Cigna. Each of those PBMs has a vast pharmacy network in specialty and mail-order pharmacies, or in retail and grocery store locations, where they funnel customers insured by their parent companies to fill their prescriptions. This cuts out locally owned and operated pharmacies.

    “[The PBMs have] really integrated themselves vertically up and down,” said Todd Brown, executive director of the Massachusetts Independent Pharmacists Association. “They have an incentive to keep the business within their own system.”

    Small pharmacies have attempted to negotiate with PBMs in the past, but they have no leverage against the dominance of the top three, Brown said.

    “For me to be successful, to be able to stay in business, to be able to take care of people, in some ways it’s against everything I was taught growing up,” Skenderian said. “People come with a prescription. You want to fill it. You want to help them out. You want to make sure they get the medicine. You want to make a little money, and then everybody’s happy. And you can’t do that anymore.”

    Every time he fills a prescription, Skenderian said, the PBM for a customer’s insurance plan pays him back for less than the medication is worth, sometimes as little as half the cost.

    Skenderian said he has to be “defensive” with how he runs Skenderian Apothecary. He no longer takes many insurance plans he did in the past that now pay him at a major loss, and he fills far fewer prescriptions than he used to.

    “[PBM’s will] pay a different amount to the pharmacy for the exact same claim,” Brown said. “Pharmacies have been forced to limit their participation, limit taking certain insurers so that they cut out the insurers that pay them the least amount.”

    “Claims that CVS Caremark favors large network pharmacies over independent pharmacies are simply not accurate,” CVS Caremark spokesperson Shelly Bendit wrote in an emailed statement. “In Massachusetts, CVS Caremark reimburses independent pharmacies at higher rates than CVS Pharmacy for brand, generic, and specialty medications.”

    Skenderian conceded that CVS Caremark could reimburse independent pharmacies at higher rates than CVS locations. However, the lack of transparency about PBMs’ negotiations with drug manufacturers could still make Caremark’s reimbursements unfair. For instance, a PBM can charge an insurance company more than it pays a pharmacy, a tactic called “spread pricing.”

    Such pricing generated estimated income of $1.4 billion from 2017-21 for the three largest PBMs, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Much of that income came from dispensing commercial prescriptions through unaffiliated pharmacies like Skenderian Apothecary. CVS Health is the parent company of insurer Aetna, Caremark and its retail pharmacies.

    “It’s not a very fair system, but it’s the system we work under,” Skenderian said. “They can manipulate things any way they want. It’s impossible to get to the bottom of this, of what is truthful or not, because they will not give that information.”

    Pharmacy deserts

    In the past several years, the number of all pharmacy locations have shrunk around Massachusetts and nationwide. The state has lost nearly 200 pharmacies since 2019, a 17% decline, according to data published in October 2025 from the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission. Over 1 million Massachusetts residents live in pharmacy deserts or “near-deserts” by the MHPC’s standards.

    Within the study, 2024-25 saw the smallest number of openings and largest number of closings of any time period. A Walgreens store in Cambridge’s Central Square closed in March 2025 because it was an unprofitable location, a common story for many CVS and Walgreens stores that have closed in recent years.

    Skenderian Apothecary and Inman Square Pharmacy are the last independent, locally owned pharmacies in Cambridge. The most recent independent pharmacy to close was Ciampa Apothecary, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Ciampa moved in 2015 to Peabody and operates as North Shore Home Medical Supply and Home Care Pharmacy.

    “Pharmacies have closed mainly because of the pharmacy benefit managers,” Brown said. “They underpay the pharmacies, overcharge the health plans and keep the difference.”

    “Pharmacies can go out of business for many reasons. PBMs are working to help rural, community pharmacies by paying them more than retail chain pharmacies,” said Greg Lopes, spokesperson for the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, in an emailed statement.

    Brown suggested there might be other ways for pharmacies to recover the loss on filling prescriptions by offering vaccinations or services and products not usually available at a typical chain store. Skenderian can create compound medications to meet more patient-specific needs than a typical commercial prescription. Other pharmacies may offer specialized medical equipment that would be difficult to find elsewhere.

    Day to day, however, many customers choose a local pharmacy for a more personalized experience and higher standards of service.

    “They take care of you,” said Patricia Mazza, a longtime Skenderian customer. “They also give you good advice on how to use the drug, which you don’t get everywhere, right?”

    In a more long-term effort, Brown and the independent pharmacists’ association are advocating for a bill in the state legislature that would improve conditions for pharmacies across the board. The bill – H.4346, “An Act to Ensure Access to Prescription Medications” – would allow pharmacies to contest PBMs on the cost of drugs and require PBMs to provide pharmacies with detailed reasonings for those costs, match reimbursements among pharmacies regardless of affiliation and reimburse for medications at a rate matching the pharmacist’s expenses. The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing is expected to report on the bill by March 18.

    The federal government has also acted recently on PBM reform. Congress passed bipartisan legislation Feb. 3 that sets standards for how PBMs interact with Medicare plans. It would permit any pharmacy to join an insurance company’s network after meeting standard requirements, a specific benefit to local stores. It also requires a PBM to deliver detailed data to insurers and pharmacies on its prescription drug spending and enables pharmacies to report potential contract violations by PBMs. The plans are expected to go into effect by Jan. 1, 2028.

    “I think it will have a positive effect. The problem is, is it doesn’t really kick in till 2028,” Brown said. “Pharmacies are really struggling right now. Some of them aren’t going to be able to hold on till 2028.”

    Mazza, a real estate broker, gets her prescriptions filled at Skenderian regularly. Through the changes in the two decades she has been a customer, Mazza went out of her way to switch to an insurance plan the pharmacy will accept over getting her medications transferred to a chain.

    “[Skenderian takes] way better care of you than they do at CVS,” Mazza said.

    This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.

  • Changes to MBTA bus routes could mean good news for riders

    Changes are coming to two Arlington bus routes on April 5, when the 87 and 350 routes will be streamlined. The changes come from MBTA’s multi-year Better Bus Project, and will bring more service to the town.

    The project, announced in 2018 and expected to be completed in 2029, aims to improve the MBTA’s service, matching demand levels and improving facilities. While MBTA ridership averages are still short of pre-pandemic levels, recent jumps in ridership are making the need for updates crucial to manage rising demand.

    “Improving bus service and connectivity continues to be a major priority for the MBTA. Keeping the entire system in mind, we aim to create an even more robust network and are consistently looking at ways to enhance service. We are proud of the ongoing work our employees partake in to improve bus service year-round, including accessibility upgrades, route changes, and rider outreach/education,” an MBTA spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

    The change is designed to eliminate non-standard patterns, increasing simplicity and connectivity. For example, routes like the 87 run “short-turn” patterns, where the bus will turn at Clarendon Hill instead of traveling the entire route from Lechmere to Arlington Center.

    This means that riders between Clarendon Hill and Arlington Center are not served by the 87’s non-standard route. In eliminating the “short-turn,” the 87 will run its current full-length route only, which will increase service to Arlington.

    Non-standard patterns will also be eliminated on Route 350. Currently, some runs skip the North Burlington Road and spend the entire route on Cambridge Street. This change will provide more service and connection to the retail area and Lahey Hospital.

    Arlington Town Manager Jim Feeney said his office hasn’t received any concerns regarding the change, adding that based on information from the MBTA, it appears Arlington may get more service, especially on weekends.

    The town can expect to see a 23 percent increase in service of the 87 on weekdays, a 30 percent increase on Saturdays, and an 8 percent increase on Sundays, according to MBTA data.

    Eliminating non-standard patterns will cause timetables to shift. However, the change should have no significant downside, according to the MBTA.

    Riders of the short-turn pattern of the 87 should see no changes, except that outbound riders to Clarendon Hill will now need to cross Broadway. As the bus will now continue to Arlington, it will not pull directly into the busway.

    Non-standard route riders of the 350 will no longer be able to use the stop at Cambridge Street and Burlington Mall Road, as the full route does not service that stop. Users of that stop can use the 76 Cambridge Street stop instead, which is less than a quarter of a mile up the road.

    This story, published Feb. 27, 2026, is part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.