Join the Massachusetts Apprentice Network for the one-year anniversary of its launch.
03/27/2023
9:30am - 11:00am
Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce
This event will explore why in-game advertising is becoming the next big advertising channel and how companies can tap into the gaming ad space.
03/28/2023
5:30pm - 7:30pm
Mediahub
Thank you for joining us for our second Government Affairs forum of the year that featured Ronald J. Mariano, Massachusetts Speaker of the House.
03/30/2023
9:45am - 11:00am
Colonnade Hotel
Designed for mid-level managers and supervisors, this new certificate program addresses workplace well-being through unique, innovative, and actionable methods.
Join our Transformational DEI Certificate! Our comprehensive learning & development offerings are designed to connect and grow strong leaders who lead both inside and out of the office.
Our Women’s Leadership Program enables you to take your leadership to the next level by arming you with the most in-demand leadership toolkit.
Expand your DEI professional development with a virtual workshop focused specifically on LGBTQIA+ identities and inclusion.
Our Economic Inclusion Committee provides strategic support around research, policies, and programs that are focused on building equal opportunity.
We are developing an ecosystem of corporations and partners with the influence and buying power to transform economic inclusion for minority business enterprises (MBEs).
The Fierce Urgency of Now Festival brings Boston’s diverse young professionals together with business leaders, organizations and their peers to build connection, advance careers and ignite positive change.
09/12/2023 -
09/15/2023
Greater Boston
City Awake empowers young professionals in a variety of ways that encourages these rising leaders to stay invested in the region’s future success.
BIMA (the Boston Interactive Media Association) serves a vibrant community of like-minded professionals from agencies, brands, publishers, and ad-tech companies with business interests in the New England market.
For more than 25 years, the Chamber’s Women’s Network has connected female professionals of all background and career levels. Today, our Women’s Network is the largest in New England, strengthening the professional networks of women each year.
Through MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange), we’re building valuable connections between the people and ideas behind technology and its impact on the future of customer experiences, all to create a community that’s finding tomorrow’s solutions together.
We support small business through public policy initiatives, events designed to connect small businesses in Greater Boston to their peers and established business leaders, professional development offerings, and free small business advising.
Explore our mission and values to better understand how we are leading the business community forward.
Our member directory is your resource to discover, connect, and engage with Boston’s businesses from every industry and sector.
September 1, 2021
The Chamber submitted testimony regarding S.771 and S.736, two bills dealing with pharmaceutical industry transparency and health care costs. One of the Chamber’s guiding health care policy principles is that the state must strike a balance between supporting our cornerstone health care industry and ensuring that world-class care is accessible and affordable for residents, businesses, and the state budget.
The Chamber supports the goal of both bills to include pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in health cost trends analyses and hearings. Including both in Health Policy Commission (HPC) public hearings and Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) reporting will provide useful data and analysis to aid in health care cost reviews. Steps like permitting the HPC to study specific drugs that may be driving costs can narrow in on specific drivers and support qualitative and quantitative analysis about whether the costs are justified. We also understand that conducting this additional analysis may require an assessment on pharmaceutical firms to cover cost related to that analysis.
While the Chamber strongly supports expanding public hearings and data analysis, it is necessary to emphasize the exceptional cooperation that results in regular, voluntary appearances in which private entities (including hospitals and health plans) discuss their products, services, and operations in public settings. With that in mind, the Chamber urges the committee to avoid, at this stage, requiring companies to provide detailed information on their businesses, like marketing expenses, research and development expenses, and capital funding expenses. It is unclear how this additional information would reduce health care costs, whether for specific companies, sectors, or the industry as a whole.
For several years now there is general agreement on bringing pharmaceutical manufacturers and PBMs into hearings and treating them the same as health care entities. Rather than delaying involvement longer, the Chamber urges the committee and the Legislature to adopt provisions that add transparency through HPC and CHIA participation and require similar levels of reporting as hospitals and insurers.
As with any comprehensive legislation, the Legislature should consider the impacts each bill will have on our broader economy. This consideration is particularly relevant because health care plays an integral role in our regional and state economy. In Massachusetts, the health care industry directly accounts for about 18 percent of jobs in the state and indirectly accounts for tens of thousands of additional jobs.1 The industry here includes world class providers, pharmaceutical breakthroughs, and among the largest share of insured residents in the country.
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Brian O’Connor
Government Affairs Manager
[email protected]617-557-7316
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