Recent actions taken by the chamber on legislative issues
On behalf of the 1400 members of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc., (ACCGS) I, Russell Denver, would like to express our view on the Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) Reform bills, HB 4712 and SB 2220, currently under your consideration.
CORI reform has been a priority issue at the ACCGS for some time. At our major Outlook luncheon in February 2010 when we outlined our legislative agenda in front of 1000 people, including our state legislators, we used an actual case of an employer hiring a worker with a criminal past and how well that hire has worked out. However, what made that hire possible was the information the employer had about the applicant prior to the hiring.
Our position has always been that employers need accurate and timely information on job applicants so that they can balance that information during the interview process in order to make a good hiring decision. Our concern with the current legislation is the added bureaucracy that would make this process more cumbersome or less business friendly.
Our membership is diverse and we appreciate the sections of the legislation that will allow certain employers to have access to this information very early in the hiring process. However, other employers may have to hold off on these inquiries until later in the process. This only accentuates our call for the need for very timely and accurate responses to these inquiries. In today’s business world, positions, when they become available, often need to be filled quickly for many reasons.
Therefore, we urge you to be sure that these aspects are included in the final version:
· Absolute accuracy in all criminal offender record information;
· Strong emphasis on upgrading the system and information to provide timely responses to all requests;
· Providing employers with affirmative defense against negligent hire liability when using CORI;
· A less bureaucratic and more business friendly system not requiring onerous reporting and record keeping for users of the system.
We appreciate the months of effort that have gone into drafting this bill and for both branches’ openness in listening to the concerns of all parties (especially those of the business community we represent) who are providing jobs for those needing them in what is currently a very difficult economy.
House Bill 4607, An Act Relative to Noncompetition Clauses
On behalf of the 1400 members of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc., I am writing to you about a bill currently in your committee, House Bill 4607, An Act Relative to Noncompetition Clauses, and our opposition to that legislation.
As you know, non-compete clauses have been used for many years in Massachusetts to protect the trade secrets and goodwill developed by a company that is essential to its continued vitality and ability to provide jobs.
Our Courts decide disagreements over non-compete clauses. Historically the courts have been able to rule on these cases on an individual basis after hearing both sides. More often than not, the courts rule in favor of employees in order to enable them to make a living. This proposed legislation is not needed because the current system in place works to strike the right balance between a company’s legitimate interest in protecting its trade secrets and good will and the ability of a former employee to earn a living.
We believe that scrapping the current system and impairing the freedom to contract, especially in these difficult times is unnecessary and that the current market system and judicial review can fairly and adequately address these issues. We believe the legislature should oppose this legislation and instead work on other protections of companies’ developments and technological assets.
On behalf of our members, I appreciate your attention to our request to oppose House Bill 4607.
Health Care Cost Legislation
I, Russell Denver, am writing on behalf the 1400 members of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc. (ACCGS) about health care legislation that I understand you might be taking up shortly based upon Senate Bill 2437, An Act to promote cost containment, transparency and efficiency in the provision of quality health insurance for individuals and small businesses.
The ACCGS has long stated that the cost of health care, specifically for the small business market, is the most pressing concern of our members and must be addressed. Therefore, we applaud you for taking up this issue and we believe Senate Bill 2437 is a very good faith effort in this process. In May of this year, we wrote to Governor Patrick stating that we did not believe setting rate caps was an effective method of dealing with the underlying problems of escalating health care costs. We did acknowledge however that his efforts do appear to have gotten all participants around the same table which may prove helpful.
In our letter, we noted several components of what we believe should be in any piece of legislation attempting to address this problem. We are aware that many of these components are in SB 2437 however, some adjustments to some of them should be made. The following is the list that we sent to the Governor:
- Require transparency in health care costs and quality measures.
- Promote standardization and efficiency in health care administration.
- Help to implement health care provider payment approaches which reward providers for quality, efficiency and effectiveness of care.
- Require value-based health care purchasing.
- Discourage practices and regulations that inhibit innovation.
- Withdraw any pending legislative proposals that call for new mandated insurance benefits or otherwise increase premium costs.
- Link price of service to quality of service.
- Bring down the cost of “defensive medicine” by enacting tort reforms. [nbsp
Specific to SB 2437, we note that an assessment is to be put onto certain hospitals; while it is less obvious if that assessment would be extended to all hospitals or not. We remain very cautious of putting undue burdens onto hospitals especially in light of the constant need for capital improvements and investment into state of the art technologies.
Additionally, in the legislation is a call for a trial program for association health plans, and while the ACCGS has long advocated for these programs as being another tool in the box for some businesses to access, we are very concerned with the language that these products would only be available through the state run Connector. We strongly believe that our network of independent insurance brokers has long served an essential role in assisting small businesses and that these brokers should not be excluded with any health care offering.
The ACCGS has long called for small businesses to be able to engage in healthy lifestyle or wellness programs and be rewarded themselves, as well as their employees, with lower premium costs in exchange for meting certain wellness benchmarks. Many large corporations and those that are self funded are able to engage in these programs; the small business market must be able to access these programs as well.
Other aspects of the bill should go forward. Especially important is to be sure the Health Care Quality and Cost Containment Commission remains as the progress it has made on ensuring that health care data is transparent and readily available has been essential to the progress made to date. Prohibiting mandates for certain health care coverage is also essential. The ACCGS has called for this over the past several years and most recently during the FY 2011 budget debate.
In closing, we applaud the efforts put forth by the Senate and look forward to what is expected from the House. We believe enactment of a bill, along the lines outlined in this letter is essential this year in order to bring reliability back to our health care system and to begin addressing the plague of escalating health care costs; especially in the small business market.
We are most willing to discuss any aspect of this letter or of any legislation with you at any time. Please feel free to contact Jeff Ciuffreda, Vice President of Government Affairs directly at (413) 755–1312 or email him at ciuffreda@myonlinechamber.com
HouseBill 3912, An Act Relative to Patient Safety
As the formal session of the legislature winds to a close, I would like to reiterate, on behalf of the 1400 members of the Affiliated Chambers of Commerce of Greater Springfield, Inc. our opposition to House Bill 3912, An Act Relative to Patient Safety.
This bill, currently in front of your committee, has been studied and opposed by the ACCGS for the past few sessions. Contrary to its title, the ACCGS believes it does very little to enhance patient safety but instead has several damaging elements such as:
· adding many millions of dollars of cost to an already expensive system which would be passed on to businesses and their employees;
· result in government taking away flexibility needed by businesses in making day to day decisions; and
· actually eliminate jobs as hospitals make cut backs that would be required to be able to meet these rigorous mandates.
As I noted, the Chamber has long opposed this bill believing that if passed would cause serious harm to one of our most important sectors of our economy. In a good economy this bill would have a negative effect; in our current economy the results could be devastating.
Therefore, on behalf of the members of the ACCGS, we ask that this bill not be acted upon favorably by your committee. Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request.
Should you have any questions on the above please feel free to contact me or Jeff Ciuffreda.
Sincerely,
Russell F Denver,
President, ACCGS