The bill filing deadline in the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives was Friday, January 20. MassBio worked with Representative Ed Coppinger and Senator John Cronin to file two bills in both the House and Senate; HD.850/SD.1754, An Act relative to promoting comprehensive transparency in the pharmaceutical industry; and HD.851/SD.1755, An Act relative to promoting healthcare access and affordability for patients.
This week:
MassBio hosts the annual Policy Leadership Breakfast on Wednesday. At the Breakfast, Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante (D-Gloucester) will be honored as MassBio’s Legislator of the Year for 2022. There will also be remarks from Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and a panel discussion around “Sustaining Massachusetts’ Life Sciences Leadership: Advancing Innovation, Opportunity, and Region.”
On Wednesday, Mayor Wu delivers her first State of the City address at MGM Music Hall at Fenway. The speech will be live-streamed.
On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz, Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Mike Rodrigues, and Administration and Finance Secretary Matthew Gorzkowicz convene the first annual consensus revenue hearing of the Healey administration, where the trio will hear from economists and budget analysts as they attempt to reach agreement on an estimate of how much tax revenue the state will collect in fiscal year 2024. The hearing will be live-streamed on the Massachusetts Legislature website and open to the public.
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission (HPC) Board of Commissioners meets on Wednesday. The agenda includes a discussion of the performance improvement plan (PIP) review process in 2022, votes on a report to the Legislature about telehealth use, regulatory changes for the Office of Patient Protection, and a preview of upcoming research examining COVID-19’s impact on the health care workforce and disparities perpetuated by health system factors. The meeting will be live-streamed.