Moderator Amir Emamifar, who's career spans more than 30 years a clinical pharmacist, leads a panel discussion on the topic "Bridging Policy to Practice: Navigating the 340B Program's Landscape and Embracing Opportunities featuring the following panelist: 

Patti Hawkins, PharmD - Interim Administrator for Oncology Services and serves on the clinical faculty at the Union University School of Pharmacy

Christopher Hatwig, MS, RPh, FASHP - President at Apexus

Lisa Scholz, PharmD, MBA, FACHE - Vice President of 340B Enterprise Strategy at AmerisourceBergen

Carolyn Liptak, MBA, RPh brings more than 30 years of experience in the healthcare industry and currently serves as the Pharmacy Executive Director for Regulatory, Compliance & Financial Performance on the Vizient Center for Pharmacy Practice Excellence team. She has provided directorial leadership for inpatient, outpatient, retail and specialty pharmacy operations and clinical strategy. Her areas of expertise include regulatory compliance, revenue integrity, sterile compounding, and controlled substance diversion surveillance. She currently is a member of the Pharmacy Advisory Council at The Joint Commission. 

Prior to joining Vizient, Carolyn served in leadership roles at Texas Children’s Hospital and Memorial Hermann Health System in Houston as well as The Medical Center of Aurora and the University of Colorado Hemophilia & Thrombosis Center in Denver. Carolyn received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe School of Pharmacy and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Houston Clear Lake. She is based remotely in Denver, Colorado

LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• To discuss reimbursement from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for medications covered under Medicare Part B 
• Identify ways to stay informed of new and changing status indicators and payment limits
• Recall the purpose of payment modifiers in the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and the requirements for compliance

Jenna Stern, Associate Vice President of Regulatory Affairs & Public Policy, supports Vizient’s government relations, monitors federal regulatory and legislative developments, and helps communicate Vizient’s positions on developments most relevant to Vizient and its members. Prior to joining Vizient, Jenna served as the Director of Health Policy for the American Pharmacists Association and as a senior associate with Avalere, a DC-based healthcare consulting firm.

Jenna received her law degree with a concentration in health law from Case Western Reserve University and is a member of the Maryland bar. She is also a graduate of Brock University where she received her bachelor of science in health sciences.

Ken Perez is a current consultant and the former VP of Healthcare Policy and Government Affairs for Omnicell, where he has worked for a total of 15 years. He is the host of the Future of Pharmacy Podcast and has been a health policy columnist for hfm, the monthly journal of the Healthcare Financial Management Association, for over 10 years. Ken also serves on the board of the ASHP Foundation and the Dean’s Executive Council for UCSF’s School of Nursing. Ken holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations with an emphasis in economics from Stanford University and a MBA with a concentration in finance from UCLA Anderson.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

• Understand the magnitude of the healthcare labor shortage
• Identify the primary contributing factors to the healthcare labor shortage
• Assess the impacts of the labor shortage on the healthcare system
• Examine and evaluate short-term and long-term solutions to the healthcare labor shortage

Shawn Wood, MBA, CPHT, 340B ACE, is Director of System 340B Oversight and Compliance for Beth Israel Lahey Health (BILH), overseeing hospitals’ onsite 340B Program or split-billing, 340B advocacy and overall 340B Program compliance. BILH’s 340B program is a large program with significant regulatory, compliance, financial, IS, and workflow complexities that supports its financial health, which he supports.

Shawn has 14 years of experience in the 340B Program and more than 20 years in hospital pharmacy settings. His career began as a pharmacy technician, then pharmacy supply chain and then moved to administering the 340B Program. His 340B expertise spans hospital based and contract pharmacy programs, pharmacy supply chain and includes, a Pharmacy Technician Certification, an advanced certification for 340B or ACE, a Bachelors in Healthcare Management from Cambridge College and an MBA from UMass-Boston. He has also spoken nationally at the 340B Conference on best practice and, twice locally at Massachusetts Society of Health-System Pharmacists (MSHP) on the expanding role of Pharmacy Technicians and the 340B Program. Most recently he received from MSHP the
Technician of the Year Award for his work on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center’s 340B Program.

With more than 15 years of experience in the pharmacy field, Angela Nash, CPHT-ADV has proven to be a passionate, knowledgeable, and effective leader. Her diverse pharmacy background includes sterile compounding, project management, team development, and supply chain management.  Angela has worked with pharmacy technicians from across the country to assist them in discovering their ideal career paths in pharmacy, assessing their career values and goals, and ultimately creating a strategic plan for obtaining their dream job and enjoying a rewarding and fulfilling career. Angela has successfully implemented numerous cost-saving initiatives, reduced inventory waste, developed medication management education for the nursing staff, and improved standards of practice to prevent diversion.

Dwight de Vera is the Vice President of Healthcare Strategy at Inmar Intelligence. Previously, Dwight was the founder and CEO of RxTransparent which was acquired by Inmar in 2020. He obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Supply Chain and Information Systems from the Pennsylvania State University.

Dwight is recognized as an expert in healthcare analytics and drug supply chain. He is the recipient of many healthcare and technology industry awards and his work has been featured in several industry publications. Dwight is frequently asked to represent the drug dispensing community at regulatory meetings and industry events specially focused on drug data standards and the Drug Supply Chain Security Act or DSCSA.

Laura Monroe-Duprey, PharmD, BSPharm, is currently Inova Health System’s (IHS) Medication Safety Officer in northern Virginia. Inova Health System is a five-hospital system with ambulatory, primary care and off site urgent and emergency centers for which this role spans. Prior to working at IHS she was the Division Direction of Medication Safety for sixteen hospitals on the west coast of Florida. 

Laura has a comprehensive background in healthcare which includes roles as a pharmacy director, operations manager, pharmacy quality coordinator and clinical pharmacist for small and large community hospitals, a regional pharmacy director, as well as a Chief Quality Officer. She has also been a residency program director (RPD), preceptor and for PGY-1 residents and is the current RPD for a PGY-2 Medication Use Safety and Policy (MUSP) resident and worked as consultant with NECC-MERPS. She has given state and national continuing education presentations on medication safety and error prevention strategies including smart pump library best practices. Her experience spans over thirty years in three states giving her an abundance of knowledge and insight into medication management opportunities.

Dr. Neil Hunter, PharmaD., MBA, BCSCP, is the System Director – Sterile Drug Compounding for Ochsner Health, encompassing oversight for forty-seven hospitals. His practice expertise includes sterile compounding and healthsystem automation. His focus is to automate processes, in a system setting, which allow for a data driven approach to ensure medications are delivered safely, and in a timely manner. 

Nationally, Dr. Hunter serves on the BD Connected Medication Management and SCA Advisory Board’s. In the state of Louisiana, he serves as President-Elect for the LSHP, and as the President of the South-East LSHP local chapter. In this setting, he is an advocate for hospital pharmacist and is striving to increase Louisiana Pharmacist participation in LSHP.