January 7, 2026 11:30 am
LVBCH 2026 Hot Topics in Healthcare with DeSales University
Wednesday, January 7, 2026 (Snow date: Friday, January 9, 2026)
About Hot Topics in Healthcare (Annual Event Description): This event features a relevant hot topic for the upcoming year. Hot topics feature innovation and dynamics at play impacting the healthcare market. These topics are of interest to a variety of business and community stakeholders.
Slides now available, select Presentations (+) below to view.
340B What Employers and the Community Need to Know
The 340B Drug Pricing Program allows participating hospitals and clinics to purchase medicines at steep discounts (“buy low”) and sell those medicines to payers, including employers, and patients at full negotiated rates (“sell high”).
The profit generated was originally intended to help cash-strapped safety-net providers provide lower cost medicines and expand care for low income and underserved patients. However, due to lack of clear
regulations and poor transparency and oversight, the program has grown to over $66 billion in purchase volume – making it the second-largest federal drug program after Medicare Part D. Large, well-resourced hospital systems capture the largest share of 340B profit.
As the program has grown, it appears to be contributing to the rising cost of healthcare for employers in several ways: lost rebates on prescriptions purchased at the 340B price, markups on medicines, questionable prescribing patterns, incentives for consolidation, and more.
While these incentive structures have been documented in academic literature, the ability to quantify financial impact on employers has remained limited. This gap has persisted despite the program’s growth and a clear desire to enact reforms.
- Karen Kent, DeSales University
- Carl Seitz, Lehigh Valley Business Coalition on Healthcare
340B: What Employers and the Community Need to Know
- Melissa Bartlett, ERIC
- Moderator: Karen Kent, DeSales University
- Lauren Grantz, Lehigh Valley Health Network
- Peter Hlavinka, St. Luke’s University Health Network
- Peter Kareha, McGriff
KEYNOTE EXPERT PRESENTATION - 340B: What Employers and the Community Need to Know
The 340B Drug Pricing Program plays a major role in shaping drug costs and provider contracting—but few employers understand its growing impact on pharmacy and hospital claims. This presentation will unpack how 340B works, where program incentives create cost distortions, and how employers can respond through smarter contracting, transparency efforts, and benefit design strategies.
Learning Objectives:
- Explain the origins and intent of the 340B program and how it operates today.
- Explore how 340B pricing and contracting practices may affect employer-sponsored health plan costs.
- Evaluate strategies to promote transparency and accountability within provider and PBM relationships.
- Discuss potential policy reforms and their implications for patients, employers, and plan sponsors.
Welcome - DeSales University MBA Program
Employer Strategies to Leverage 340B
Melissa Bartlett, J.D.
Melissa Bartlett is the Senior Vice President, Health Policy for ERIC, leading the development of ERIC’s health policy and advocacy for its legislative and regulatory priorities at the federal, state, and local levels. Specifically, she supports ERIC member companies in advancing policies impacting all aspects of employer-sponsored health coverage, including the taxation of benefits, health care costs, quality, safety, and access, as well as laws and regulations affecting how health care benefits are administered on a nationwide basis.
Prior to joining ERIC, Melissa was a Principal at Chamber Hill Strategies, providing a broad range of health care stakeholders with strategic counsel, policy development, and congressional and agency engagement on health care legislative and regulatory matters. A long-time health policy and government relations professional, Melissa brought to the firm her previous experience working within government, corporations, and associations to help drive success for her clients.She previously served as Associate Vice President for Government Relations for Sanofi. Additionally, Melissa served as Vice President for Government Relations and Representation for Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC) and represented health insurers through her regulatory work for America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). Her first health policy experience was working with large, multi-specialty group practices as legislative counsel for the American Medical Group Association (AMGA).
Melissa’s government experience includes serving as Counsel for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce for Chairman Joe Barton (R-TX) as the lead Medicare counsel in addition to working on a wide range of health policy issues within the Committee’s jurisdiction, including: Medicaid/CHIP, health reform, health insurance, mental health parity, health information technology, health privacy, patient safety, quality initiatives and measurement, FDA, and Ryan White HIV/AIDS funding. She also managed oversight and investigation issues before the Committee, including oversight of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Prior to her work for Congress, Melissa developed Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) strategies, policies, and program improvements as a HIPAA Privacy Program Specialist for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and assisted with investigations to secure HIPAA compliance.
Melissa earned her J.D. at the University of Kentucky College of Law, and her B.A. in Journalism from Franklin College.
Karen Kent, Ph.D.
Dr. Kent joined the Division of Business at DeSales in 2019 as the Director of the MBA program and chair of the healthcare administration major. She has spent her career both as a healthcare executive and an academic leader. She’s held positions at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as the coordinator of Managed Care Arrangements and as the Administrator of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery-where she led the largest ENT Departments in the country. She has also served as an independent consultant, leading strategic planning and business development efforts for healthcare and business clients. Dr. Kent was an assistant professor at Xavier University and Penn State University before joining DeSales.
Lauren Grantz, PharmD, MBA, CSP, 340B ACE
Lauren Grantz serves as the Administrator of Outpatient Pharmacy Services for the Lehigh Valley Region of Jefferson Health. Over the course of her 20-year career at Lehigh Valley, Lauren has led initiatives that enhance patient access to medications and improve health outcomes.
In her current role, she oversees operations, compliance, and strategic development for multiple programs, including retail, specialty, and home infusion pharmacy, as well as the 340B drug program. Lauren earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and a Master’s in Business Administration from DeSales University. She holds national board certification in Specialty Pharmacy and an Apexus Advanced 340B Operations Certificate.
In 2022, Lauren was nominated by the state of Pennsylvania and honored with a national award from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for her leadership in COVID-19 vaccine distribution across the Lehigh Valley. Her passion for patient care is evident in her role as a key stakeholder in creating and expanding programs such as specialty pharmacy and pharmacy-led Transitions of Care (TOC).
A proud Lehigh Valley native, Lauren lives in Bethlehem with her family.
Peter Hlavinka, PharmD
Peter Hlavinka is the Senior Director of Pharmacy for St. Luke’s University Health Network. Throughout his 25 years with St. Luke’s, Peter has held several technical, clinical and leadership positions. In his current role, he is responsible for pharmacy services at the SLUHN hospitals and outpatient infusion centers include two 340B covered entities.
Peter is a native of Bethlehem, PA and currently lives there with his wife, Raquel, and two daughters.
Pete Kareha, MBA, GBA
Pete Kareha is an Employee Benefits Consultant who is focused on optimizing the value of the health and benefits programs employers can offer to their employees. Pete’s vision is to drive the organizations and communities he is part of to their maximum potential by combining creative solutions with analytically grounded ideas. Pete is a senior executive within Marsh McLennan Agency’s employee health & benefits practice and is responsible for business development.
An insurance industry veteran since 2007, Pete worked for global benefits consulting firm Mercer as the strategic health and benefits consultant to its largest self-funded employers. He also ran Mercer’s data analytics consulting business in the Northeast region and was part of its national analytics leadership team.
Pete’s experience working with mid-sized employers to those with over 100,000 employees enables him to ‘think with his clients’ as their needs and goals evolve, guiding them to where they aim to be. He has also worked with clients in many industries, including financial and insurance services, healthcare, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications, media and higher education.
Pete has been named as a 40 under 40 award winner by the Lehigh Valley Business Journal. He founded an annual charity event in memory of his late father, which has raised over $375,000 for nonprofits that champion a message of positivity. Active in his community, Pete serves on a number of boards and committees. When he’s not working, he likes to spend time with his family and friends, exercise, travel, cook, and play golf.
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LVBCH is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP recertification activities.
