The 2019 Healthcare Economics Summit

Senior Res. Fellow and Healthcare Scholar, Mercatus Center

Author of “Fortress and Frontier in American Health Care,” Dr. Robert Graboyes’ work asks, “How can we make health care as innovative in the next 25 years as information technology was in the past 25?”Previously, he was health care advisor for the National Federation of Independent Business, economics professor at the University of Richmond, regional economist/director of education at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, and Sub-Saharan Africa economist for Chase Manhattan Bank. An award-winning teacher, he has also taught health economics in graduate programs at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Virginia, George Mason University, and the George Washington University.

His degrees include a PhD in Economics from Columbia University; master’s from Columbia University, Virginia Commonwealth University, and the College of William and Mary; and a bachelor’s from the University of Virginia. He has chaired the National Economists Club, Richmond Association for Business Economics, and National Association for Business Economics Healthcare Roundtable.

Chief Data Officer & Director, Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Allison Oelschlaeger is the Chief Data Officer and Director of the Office of Enterprise Data & Analytics (OEDA) at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). In this role, Allison focuses on maximizing the value and impact of CMS data for internal and external users.

She oversees CMS’ data and information product portfolio and directs efforts to make CMS data sets available to external organizations. Allison also manages the development of advanced analytics using CMS data that help inform policy decisions and evaluate programs.

Before joining CMS, Allison worked at the Lewin Group where she specialized in program evaluation and data analysis. She is a graduate of Georgetown University.

Director of Healthcare Policy, Goldwater Institute

Naomi Lopez Bauman, serves as the Director of Healthcare Policy for the Goldwater Institute. She most recently served as the Director of Research and the Director of Health Policy at the Illinois Policy Institute. During that tenure, she also served on the executive committee for the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) Health and Human Services Task Force. Lopez Bauman also previously worked as a public policy consultant conducting research on federal and state health care programs, social and economic well-being, pension reform, federal and state health and welfare programs, barriers to entrepreneurship, and tax expenditure programs. She also served as Director of both the Center for Enterprise and Opportunity and the Project on Children at the Pacific Research Institute and was a member of the California Senate Bipartisan Task Force on Homelessness. Lopez Bauman also worked as a research associate in health care and welfare at the Institute for Socioeconomic Studies and as an entitlements policy analyst at the Cato Institute. She also served as special policy advisor to the State of Michigan’s Secchia Commission, which provided recommendations for state government reform. A frequent media guest and public speaker, Lopez Bauman has authored hundreds of studies, opinion articles and commentaries. She holds a B.A. in economics from Trinity University in Texas and an M.A. in government from Johns Hopkins University.

Business Consultant, Gielow Ventures, LL

Curt Gielow retired from Concordia University in December 2018 having served the past five years as the chief executive of the Ann Arbor, Michigan campus. Prior to that Curt was a founding dean of the Concordia University Wisconsin School of Pharmacy.

Mr. Gielow served Mequon as an alderman and mayor over a nine-year period and as a state representative in the Wisconsin Assembly for two terms, where he chaired the Medicaid Reform Committee and served as vice-chair of the Health Committee.

Curt is a former pharmacist and hospital CEO having spent most of his professional career in healthcare leadership positions prior to his ten years of service to Concordia. He now serves as a consultant to healthcare and higher education institutions.

State Representative, Wisconsin State Assembly

After graduating from Thomas More High School, Joe attended Marquette University until he left college to start a landscaping business. The business employed over 60 people and performed landscape construction and maintenance on residential, commercial and municipal projects. Joe has 25 years of experience running his own business.

Joe and his wife Becky are active members at Mary Queen of Heaven Parish in West Allis and St. John the Evangelist Parish in Greenfield. At MQH, he was on the Parish Council sitting on the building and grounds committees. At St. John’s, Joe runs the kitchen for the annual casino night school
fundraiser, works the concession stand at sporting events, and tends bar at the Parish Festival.

Joe was also a member of the Archdiocese task-force responsible for the West Allis/West Milwaukee Catholic Schools merger, and performs volunteer work and for St. Thomas More High School.

Joe Served on the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors from 2008-2012.

He was elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly 2012 and has served on numerous committees including Financial Institutions, Health, Housing and Real Estate (Vice Chairman), Jobs, Economy and Mining, Transportation, Urban Education, and the Speaker’s Task force on Mental Health.

Chief Medical Officer, Clinical Programs and Quality, Walgreen’s

Dr. Chet Robson is the Chief Clinical Integrity Officer in the Office of Clinical Integrity for Walgreens. Dr. Robson provides clinical leadership for the Walgreens brand and mission by managing groups providing evidence-based clinical support for pharmacy, specialty pharmacy, healthcare
services, digital innovation and merchandising. By utilizing innovative technology, patient-engaging care delivery models, and evidence-based medicine Dr. Robson advances the Walgreens purpose to champion the health and well-being of every community in America.

Dr. Robson did undergraduate studies at the University of Southern California and Eastern Washington University. He attended medical school at Midwestern University and completed a residency in family medicine at LaGrange Memorial Hospital where he was Chief Resident. Dr. Robson
was in practice as a family medicine physician and Chief Medical Information Officer. He received his MBA in healthcare delivery science from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.

Vice President of US Government Relations, Pfizer

Dr. Robert Popovian brings almost two decades of experience in numerous facets of biopharmaceutical and healthcare. Robert has published and presented extensively on the impact of biopharmaceuticals and health policies on health care costs and clinical outcomes, including authorship in clinical and healthcare delivery journals and published expert source in LA Times, USA Today, Pink Sheet and Bloomberg News amongst others. He also writes a monthly column published in Morning Consult regarding health policy and economic issues relevant to the biopharmaceutical industry. He
currently serves as a board member for the Global Healthy Living Foundation.

He is one of the few researchers who has studied and published both clinical and policy related economic analysis as well as one of a handful who have studied and published empirical data regarding emerging payment mechanisms in the US healthcare system. He was also one of the first to
secure inclusion of health outcomes data regarding labeled indication of a biopharmaceutical.

Robert completed his Doctorate in Pharmacy and Masters of Science in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy degrees at the University of Southern California. He has also completed a residency in Pharmacy Practice/Adult Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Los Angeles County – USC
Hospital where he was the head pharmacy resident and a fellowship in Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy at University of Southern California.

Director of Government Relations & Public Affairs, Ohio Pharmacists Association

Born and raised in pharmacy, Antonio has been crawling around pharmacies his entire life. After three years as a pharmacy technician and two years of pre-pharmacy curriculum, Antonio diverted course, graduating from The Ohio State University in 2007 with dual degrees in communications and political science before moving into the world of association management. Thinking that pharmacy would be in his rear-view mirror forever, he ended up making his way back to his pharmacy home, heading up government affairs for the Ohio Pharmacists Association, a trade organization with a strong track record of advocating for drug pricing transparency. After years of studying the pharmacy marketplace, Antonio became increasingly perplexed and concerned as he saw drug costs spiking while payouts to pharmacies were declining. Knowing something was being lost somewhere in the middle of an ever-growing transaction, Antonio has spent years working to crack the drug pricing code and pull the rug out from what he believes is one of the most dysfunctional marketplaces in the world.

Senior Director, Industry Relations and Contracting, Navitus Health Solutions

Jim Van Lieshout has more than 38 years of experience in the pharmaceutical marketplace, ranging from managing the commercialization of pharmaceutical, biotech, generic and OTC products to contracting with pharmaceutical manufacturers for value positions within the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) market.

In 2018, Jim joined Navitus Health Solutions, a full-service, URAC-accredited pharmacy benefit management company. He leads the Industry Relations and Contracting team, supporting pharmaceutical pricing and rebate contracting. Jim provides valuable insight into the rapidly evolving regulations and draft guidances from regulatory agencies and uses his extensive knowledge of market access, trade and pharmacy benefit coverage to support commercialization planning.

Prior to Navitus, Jim worked for the Apotex family of companies for over 18 years, building strong relationships with strategic customers and key trade associations, and leading the successful launch of new products. Before that, he held sales and marketing positions with Proligo and Geneva Pharmaceuticals, and was the Director of Trade and Pharmacy Relations at Ciba-Geigy. Jim earned a Master of Business Administration in pharmaceutical studies from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and business from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

South Region CFO, Ascension-Wisconsin

Jim Tarasovitch has been a senior executive in health care for over 30 years. He has led in both financial and operational roles for various health care organizations, directing and implementing strategic plans that supported the goals and objectives of the health care systems he served. Jim began his career in healthcare at Saint Vincent’s Health Care system, in Erie, PA., as the CFO for a newly-created joint venture ambulatory surgery center. He later become the President of that joint venture and held other finance and opera- tional roles for the organization, as well. He then accepted the role of CFO for the Bradford Regional Medical Center, in Bradford, PA, before becoming the regional CFO for Mayo Clinic Health System – Minnesota. Jim currently serves as the Vice President of Finance/CFO, South Region, for Ascension Wisconsin in Milwaukee, WI. In addition, Jim is an adjunct professor for Concordia University in the Health Care MBA program.

CEO, BioForward

Lisa Johnson is CEO of BioForward Wisconsin and admits that managing a nonprofit has an entire new set of challenges vs. private industry. A finance major out of UW-Madison who was fortunate to work with brilliant scientists in starting the life science reagents company Novagen back in 1989 and travel the world working for Merck KGaA/EMD. She has a passion for building Wisconsin’s biohealth ecosystem and will support those that are action-oriented, and exhibit positive energy in driving our state’s economy. Her expertise lies in general management, operations, business development and leading results-oriented teams. She likes to dance to her own beat, demonstrate results and applaud those that put the community before themselves.

CEO, TESCHGlobal, & CEO, HealthLX

Will Tesch is the founder & CEO of a global-reaching, professional services organization, TESCHGlobal (TG), which was founded in 2005. The firm has grown substantially over the past year and it now has over 50 brilliant, hard-working individuals who deliver quality solutions to customers. From data management to application development to business transformation, TG helps organizations (startup to Fortune X) from around the world with their most complex data challenges.

TESCHGlobal’s mission is to demonstrate to organizations their potential by leveraging its team of specialized solution engineers and strategists who provide best-in-class implementation services of modern technology tools and methodologies. Through TG’s professional service hubs, TG guides clients through their journey to meet and exceed the emerging demands of their business and IT operations.

HealthLX “Healthcare Language Exchange” is a disruptive approach to bridge innovation and interoperability in the Healthcare Marketplace. Our solution is focused on the explosion of APIs and innovations happening with blockchain. Our solution works with Healthcare Application vendors that wish to focus on their core technology while partnering with our growing ecosystem of clinical, x12 and end-point app connectors to extend their platforms. That’s our value proposition to the marketplace. This company was built on the shoulders of a proven and experienced service delivery organization with a rich history of successful clients in Healthcare. We get excited about changing the world… We’re doing it again with our solution called HealthLX.

A disruptive new way to deliver primary care, in medical homes across the country? While drug prices are being targeted by politicians on both sides of the aisle, they represent only 10-15% of healthcare costs. Hospital care is the larger healthcare expenditure, especially for emergency room care and nursing homes. But, most patients prefer to get their primary care at or close to home for as long and as often as possible, in what are referred to as “medical homes.” One possibility is to deliver this care though pharmacies – perhaps through what is currently the world’s largest healthcare provider, Walgreens. Is this a viable delivery vehicle for primary care, and how might it work? Hear from Walgreens Chief Clinical Officer charged with implementing this paradigm shift.

The digital health revolution, enabling consumerization of care. The last year saw the first ever FDA approved digital therapeutic. Can digital healthcare tools enable the vision of consumerizing care, by empowering patients and front-line providers with information and decision-making power? Hear from HealthTech innovators, providers, and government regulators on the future role of digital health solutions for delivering more convenient, less expensive and effective primary care digitally.