Boston Faces Med Show Cancellations

Patrick Moscaritolo said he is “on standby, waiting for the smoke signal to come from the Massachusetts State Capitol.”

Moscaritolo, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, has been in that mode since Jan. 19, when he told the Massachusetts Public Health Council it was liable to jeopardize, not just Boston's, but the entire state's lucrative health care meetings and tradeshow business if it stuck with regulations approved by the state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Deval Patrick last summer.

But some of those shows' managers decided not to wait for the smoke signals. Kay Whalen, executive director of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, already told the CVB she canceled the contract to bring her group's AAAAI Annual Meeting to Boston in 2015, along with its 8,000 attendees and 15,830 room nights.

“It is no longer financially feasible to hold the Annual Meeting in Boston,” Whalen said.

The American Society of Gene Therapy had not yet made a commitment to Boston. Still, officials said they decided against a March 2015 booking that would have brought 2,800 attendees.

At least the Heart Rhythm Society, which plans to bring 14,000 people to Heart Rhythm May 13-16 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center and four more times between now and 2021, still only is threatening to move.

All of this is because of the new state regulations, now scheduled to take effect July 1, which might put even more restrictions on health care meetings held in Massachusetts than the newly revised Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America Code.

If the state regulations are accepted as is, they probably will not allow pharmaceutical companies to be involved with continuing medical education programs, to provide meals or entertainment to physicians or to contribute to travel and lodging expenses for anybody involved with CME events, conferences or professional meetings.

“It would impact our sponsorship revenue,” said Cathy Scheck, vice president of meetings for the Heart Rhythm Society. “It would impact what we consider our customary way of doing business.”

David Bodien, president of the American Society of Gene Therapy, said, “The inability of ASGT's industry partners to participate in the (ASGT)'s Annual Meeting will cripple the content and quality of the meetings and force ASGT to no longer conduct meetings in Massachusetts.”

The key word is “probably” because the regulations as now written are worded vaguely enough to leave room for interpretation of what show managers, pharmaceutical companies and other sponsors can do to market their products and services at meetings.

“It's all in the interpretation,” Scheck said. “The broader it is, the greater the implications.”

That's why Moscaritolo is lobbying the state Public Health Council, which currently is reviewing the regulations and may – or may not – rewrite them.

Moscaritolo said his first wish is to have all health care-related meetings and shows in the state exempted from the regulations. Barring that, he said he wants more time to gather data that would demonstrate to state policymakers the economic impact the regulations could have on the state.

“The unintended consequence of all this would be to have a negative, chilling effect on everything we do,” he added.

No matter what, Moscaritolo said he wants some clarification on what show managers and meeting planners can do.

“For instance, Pfizer could not be in a room when CME is taking place,” he pointed out. “But what if Pfizer contracted with a third party, with a DMC (destination marketing company)? Would that be OK?”

Whalen, like other health care show organizers, is not waiting to find out. She said she was aware of Moscaritolo's and the CVB's attempts to lobby state government on behalf of organizations like hers.

“But we ourselves are not going to the regulatory bodies in Massachusetts,” Whalen said. “We're just going to another city.”

Moscaritolo said he hopes to hear some word from the Massachusetts Public Health Council before mid-March.

He told the council that during the next 10 years, health care-related meetings could generate 1.8 million room nights, $426 million in hotel revenue and $52 million in hotel taxes.

“Like every state now, Massachusetts has a deficit,” Moscaritolo said. “If there aren't changes made, all we're going to do is add to the deficit.”