August 2005

August 2005

Continuing its successful track record of delivering business costs savings and innovative programs to its members, the Council has launched an exclusive health care partnership with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care to help technology firms save money on employee health care coverage.  The High Tech High Touch plan offers Harvard Pilgrim’s portfolio of health plans to the Council’s member companies and their employees at lower cost premiums.

“The Massachusetts High Technology Council is delighted to be partnering with one of the nation’s top health plans,” said Council President Cort Boulanger in the July 26 press release announcing the partnership. “Providing affordable and high quality employee health care coverage is a critical competitiveness issue for technology employers. Through this new partnership with Harvard Pilgrim, we can offer our members that competitive advantage while we continue to work to make Massachusetts a better place for technology employers and employees.”

Under the plan, the Council’s member companies would receive aggressive dental benefit discounts through Harvard Pilgrim’s partnership with the Guardian dental plan.  Companies choosing the “High Tech High Touch Health Plan” will have access to more than 22,000 physicians and 130 hospitals throughout New England, an extensive national PPO network, an exclusive national alliance with UnitedHealthcare and customized “Member Advantage” savings programs. 

“Harvard Pilgrim’s exclusive partnership with the Mass High Tech Council offers the Council’s member companies access to the nation’s highest rated health plans while helping them to control their health care costs,” said Vincent Capozzi, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Harvard Pilgrim. "We are proud to partner with the Council - a premier trade association that offers its members exceptional values and top-notch leadership."

The High Touch High Tech plan is the Council’s third member savings program, all of which were born out of the public policy leadership of the Council.  The Council’s innovative energy savings program, which has roots in the restructuring of the state’s electricity marketplace in 1995, has saved participating companies more than $30 million over the past seven years.  And the Workers’ Compensation Self Insurance Group, created following workers’ compensation reform of the early 1990s, has saved Council members more than 40 percent since its inception.

For more information, please visit the member programs page at www.mhtc.org. 

In a July 31 opinion editorial in the Boston Herald, Council President Christopher Anderson called for Massachusetts politicians to support pro-growth agenda for the state’s biopharmaceutical industry.  Anderson wrote that a recently released report on the competitiveness of the Boston life sciences industry “dances around the elephant in the room – efforts by some Massachusetts political leaders to impose pharmaceutical price controls.”

A July report from the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, entitled “Sustaining Greater Boston’s Life Science Leadership,” highlighted some important initiatives to support the state’s biotechnology growth.  However, the 32 page report failed to address the issue of many Massachusetts politicians

Council President Christopher R. Anderson was invited by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry to testify before the Long-Term Growth and Debt Reduction Subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Finance on the issue of the federal depreciation tax structure and its impact on technology employers.

Anderson noted that “Despite the ever-evolving nature of technology and growing global reach of innovation firms, investment in capital assets and the cost recovery for those assets are critical to the competitiveness of US employers.”  He pointed out that the depreciation structure had not been updated in 40 years and no longer met the capital cost recovery needs of the 21st century economy.

In his testimony, Anderson asked the subcommittee to consider:

• Updating the seven depreciation categories to better reflect the useful life of technology equipment like computers, which experts have suggested depreciate twice as fast as traditional assets;
• Instituting partial expensing or reducing the statutory tax rate to promote more efficient allocation of capital;
• Allowing a 50 percent tax depreciation deduction in the first year of service and the balance over the standard life;
• Granting the Treasury Department flexibility in categorizing assets based on technological capabilities; and
• Reinstating the bonus depreciation that ended at the end of calendar year 2004.

The good news for technology firms in Massachusetts is that the members of the subcommittee, including Senator Kerry and Senator Gordon Smith (R-Oregon) are poised to work in Congress to update the depreciation system.  Senator Smith also told Anderson that he was planning to look at reform of both the corporate and individual Alternative Minimum Taxes (AMT), which would significantly benefit the technology employer and employees.