Understanding Insurance Coverage for CAR T

Lyndsay Ridgway, Manager of Financial Counseling at Penn Medicine, specializes in overseeing the development of key financial navigation programs within the organization, leading to exceptional boost in overall patient satisfaction.  An industry professional with over ten years of experience working alongside Revenue Cycle and Patient Access leaders, Lyndsay manages a team of 20 highly skilled Patient Financial Advocates and Financial Counselors.  

A strong believer in enhancing the patient experience, Lyndsay is dedicated to creating best practices within the health industry in order to reduce patient financial toxicity. Lyndsay holds a Master’s degree in Organization Development and is a member of various organizations such as the ACCC, NAHAM, and AAHAM. Her skillset includes team building, strategic planning, and change management. Lyndsay is currently working on extending her team’s outreach to a broader patient audience in order to create a more transparent patient experience through her organization. Lyndsay aspires to continue sharing her knowledge in Financial Navigation and leveraging that knowledge across the healthcare industry. Lyndsay firmly believes in the power of connection and feels that transparency is a true driver in ensuring patient trust and confidence in their care.

Arnela Kajdic-Tarantino is a certified transplant financial coordinator and program manager for the Center for Blood Cancer Therapy at St. Luke’s Cancer Institute in Boise, Idaho. She facilitates bone marrow, stem cell transplant, and immunotherapy processes, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and acts as a liaison between revenue cycle, claims and billing, payer relations, internal contracting, and clinic and patient financial advocates. She also creates and implements training workflows for patient financial advocates specific to CAR T-cell therapy, manages internal data reports and dashboards, and leads revenue cycle workgroup initiatives. 

Kajdic-Tarantino serves on the Transplant Financial Coordinator Association Committee and ACCC’s Financial Advocacy Network Education Task Force. With over 18 years of experience in health care, she is a passionate financial advocate and works to minimize financial toxicity for patients as well as support other financial advocates through training and educational initiatives. Kajdic-Tarantino earned her bachelor’s degree in health science from Boise State University in Idaho. 

Lizzie Weber is the Commercial Cellular Therapy Coordinator at Penn Medicine. She received her nursing degree from Widener University. In her current role, Lizzie collaborates with leadership to establish organizational systems to safely provide patient care for cellular therapy candidates. She coordinates complex care for cellular therapy recipients (actual or potential) as patients navigate through the evaluation of, preparation for and care post cellular therapy infusion. She provides ongoing patient/family education based on evaluation of the individual needs of patients/families. She also collaborates with manufacturers, professional organizations and other institutions to disseminate information regarding lessons learned while operationalizing a Commercial Cellular Therapy Program and creating the role of Cellular Therapy Coordinator.