August 11th, 2008
Will vendors now boycott Massachusetts?
When Massachusetts was working up what will likely be an annual save on its universal insurance plan, most of the heat covered a single provision.
It requires that any gifts from drug makers or device makers to Massachusetts doctors valued at over $50 be publicly disclosed.
That bill is now law, so opponents of the gifts disclosure now face a choice.
Are they going to stop testing their products in Massachusetts, which means ending relationships with Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, and other top facilities?
Or are they going to file the paperwork, hope that embarrassed doctors push for a repeal, and admit that, in essence, they lied during the debate?
My guess is they will do a little of both. Some companies, perhaps those with dodgy products, may choose to go elsewhere (there are 49 other states), hurting the state’s medical products industry.
Most will go along, and no one will read the reports. The industry might push the lost contracts as evidence for repeal. But the next time they threaten to bolt over some perceived slight from lawmakers, they won’t be believed.
Which do you think they’ll do? Is Brown going to replace Harvard as America’s premier medical school campus? Will Harvard and MIT faculty start fighting for visiting privileges there, in order to skirt the law and get more coffee mugs?
Stay tuned.
Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist since 1978, and has covered technology since 1982. He launched the Interactive Age Daily, the first daily coverage of the Internet to launch with a magazine, in September 1994. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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