Massachusetts Vaccine Purchasing Advisory Council
October 25, 2012

Introductions/Administrative
•	No vaccine decisions will be made today
•	The basic structural procedural details will be shared 
•	Will clarify why this council is different from the councils in the past  
o	There will be a fixed membership council 
o	We will be following the open meeting statue
o	All meetings will be posted with a fixed agenda in advance
o	It will be our choice to post minutes for this meeting

Review of Membership List
Distribution/Collection of Disclosure Forms 
•	4 individuals are absent today
•	The Council currently does not have a representative from a self-insured employer 
•	Members are asked to submit disclosure forms to Pejman

Review of Operating Procedures

Article I		Name 
•	There is a consensus over the name

Article II	Mission and Purpose	
Section 1: Mission 
Review of Mission and Purpose of the Council:
•	Should qualify vaccines with “childhood” and recommended with “ACIP-“
•	The word “Advisory” has been dropped from the first sentence 

Section 2: Purpose
•	Some felt there were a few more factors that should be taken into consideration
o	Cynthia can re-circulate what the other factors are from prior AAP committee
o	Some factors were left out to allow flexibility 
•	Comment: There should be evenness of purchases from different vaccine distributors Comment: Doctors want consistency 
•	Disagreement over the words, “Provider Preference”
o	Provider Preference potentially sounds self serving
o	Provider Input could be more neutral 
•	Edited sentence  “The Council shall take into account: safety and efficacy, and may take into consideration provider input, vaccine characteristics, cost, availability, and other factors as determined by the Council.”
•	Rationale for decision making for the Commissioner—to request as much information as available
•	Detail Suggestion: The Council would like the future Commissioner to notify the Council when he/she discloses decisions 
•	The intent here is to be explicit
•	Edited Sentence   “The Commissioner may choose not to follow recommendations at any time”  and added sentence “The Council will be notified in a timely manner should the Commissioner choose not to follow their recommendations”

Article III	Memberships
Section 1: Council Members 
•	Discussed the two types of membership – continuous where the seat belongs to the organization (i.e.: Health Connector, Health Plans) versus term limited seats which last 2 years and are by appointment and the individual is representing their peers and not an organization specifically.
•	Detail Suggestion: Would like to clarify and state the number of members at the beginning of this section

Section 2: Terms of Office
•	This section of the proposal is less than open because it is the preference of the Commissioner 
•	This language will stay intact 
•	The designee’s may change 
•	Discussed name change for Division of Health Care Finance and Policy to Center for Health Information and Analysis which is effective Nov. 5 at which point it will need to change in the operating procedures. 

Section 3:  Cessation of Membership
•	No discussion

Section 4: Conflict of interest
4.1	Conflict of Interest Occurs when a Member of the MVPAC:
•	Question for Legal: Is there a definition for “ownership”? 
•	Question for Legal: Every year at ACIP you need to go over stocks and you must not have an investment with a vaccine. Can Legal elaborate?
•	Question for Legal: Would like to clarify the sentence regarding “financial benefits” 
•	Question for Legal: What is the Legal Department’s perspective on “Financial interest for the insurer”? 
•	Suggestion: If current interests are the only thing we are talking about, we should make this details more explicit 

4.2 Procedures
•	When there is a clear conflict of interest as defined, discussion and vote will not be included 
•	Question for Legal:  Second line in this section in regards to “Potential Financial Interests”
o	Concerned with this language. Language feels vague 
•	Edit: Add the words “or the Commissioner’s designee”  next to the word “Commissioner” in the last line in this section 

Article IV	Governance
Section 1: Agenda 
•	No business can be conducted that is not on the agenda
•	Explicitly state the authority of the Commissioner to agree on items
•	Explicitly state the Councils contribution to the agenda 
•	No deliberation of discussion can happen outside of the in person meeting
•	If something important happens after the meeting, Pejman should be contacted 
•	Suggested addition of a sentence “Council members may recommend agenda items to the MVPAC Coordinator” and also added “for approval” at the end of the first sentence.
•	Meeting agendas must be publicly posted at least 48 hours in advance – suggested adding this to this section as well 

Section 2: Attendance 
•	Question for Legal: Is there an option to have an emergency meeting or delay a meeting?
•	Question for Legal: Is it possible to make a provision for a member to participate by conference call or to have an emergency meeting (either in person or by conference call) and do those have to be open to the public?
o	How can we guarantee space and the number of conference lines?
•	Edit: Add the word “are” in the first sentence in this section.  “Members are expected to attend all meetings in their entirety. “
•	Edit: Remove “typically January, April, June, and September”
•	Detail Suggestion: Schedule meetings 1 year in advance instead of 6 months 
o	Will need to check in with Legal about this
•	Edit:  Add “In a 24 month period” to the second bullet on page 5. “MVPAC Coordinator will alert members if they incur 2 absences in a 24 month period.”

Section 3: Meeting Facilitation
•	Question for Legal: Does the Commissioner’s designee need to be consistent? 

Section 4: Quorum
•	Edit Suggestion: In lieu of a conference call option, please change the word “presence” with “participation” in the first sentence in this section. Also suggested edit to add “for deliberation and votes”

Section 5: Voting
•	Edit: Change “Committee” to” Council” in last line in this section.  “The Commissioner may accept a general consensus of the Council.”
•	Confusion around the definition of “general consensus”
•	Suggestion: Need to clarify the meaning of a quorum in this document 
•	Correction  - majority vote should be 9 not 8.  
•	Suggested edit add “present” at the end of 2nd to last sentence.

Section 6: Minutes
•	No discussion

Section 7: Cancelation of Meetings
•	Add “No Agenda” as last bullet in the list of reasons to cancel

Discussion of future meetings
•	Meetings will be held on the 3rd Thursday of each quarter, with the exception of April this year which conflicts with school vacation week.
•	The Council will vote by agreement on the proposed dates 
•	The location preference for the upcoming meetings is Waltham (MMS Headquarters)
•	There is no real preference for a rotating meeting
•	There is a slight consensus for a 4 PM to  6 PM meeting time 
•	The Council will further deliberate the time and schedule