New Annual Event “Hot Topics in Healthcare” Announced by LVBCH and DeSales University MBA Program
Lehigh Valley Business Coalition on Healthcare (LVBCH) and DeSales University’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) will co-sponsor a new annual event to discuss pressing issues in employee benefits and healthcare. The event, Hot Topics in Healthcare, will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 7 (snow date, Jan. 9) from 11:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the University’s Gambet Hall.
This year’s event will explore the dynamics at play in the 340B Pharmacy Program. The 340B program, originally intended to help safety-net providers care for low income and underserved patients, enables participating hospitals to purchase medications at significant discounts and sell them at the prevailing rate. This “buy low, sell high” model can result in hospital profits at the expense of working families while there is no guarantee that these profits are passed to vulnerable patients in local communities. Potentially also raising prices due to steep markups on medications, lost rebates, health system consolidation, and incentives to prescribe higher-cost drugs and fewer biosimilars.
According to the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, the 340B price premium translates into approximately $36 billion in extra hospital spending by employers, adding to the growing evidence of 340B’s impact on working families.
Melissa Bartlette, Senior Vice President, Health Policy for the ERISA Industry Committee (ERIC), will be the keynote speaker. ERIC supports employers in providing health and wellness benefits, focusing on improving quality, transparency, and consumer choice while lowering costs. She leads ERIC’s health policy and advocacy for legislative and regulatory priorities at the federal, state, and local levels.
In her presentation, 340B: What Employers and the Community Need to Know, Bartlette will explain how 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. Her 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.
Additional event sessions will explore the various stakeholder perspectives as it relates to 340B program. Hospital representatives Lauren Grantz, Administrator, Outpatient Pharmacy Services from Lehigh Valley Health Network and Peter Hlavinka, Network Director of Pharmacy from St. Luke’s University Health Network will respond to the keynote, providing insight into the benefits derived from the 340B Program, and how these benefits are used to support local patients and the community overall. Finally, Peter Kareha, McGriff Insurance, will explain how they are able to identify and leverage 340B savings on behalf of local employers to benefit employees and their families.
Registration is required to attend the event. Registration is available now at lvbch.org.
LVBCH is recognized by SHRM to offer Professional Development Credits (PDCs) for SHRM-CP® or SHRM-SCP® recertification activities.