Kathy Chang, PharmD
Vice President
As the Vice President of Industry Relations, Kathy was responsible for $95B in annual drug spend across Commercial, Medicare, and Managed Medicaid for OptumRx and UnitedHealthcare. She managed a team that negotiated medical and pharmacy rebates with over 100 biopharma manufacturers and monitored the broader US payer landscape to inform analytical modeling and drive rebate competitiveness. She also led engagements with health plan, employer group, and state plan clients and developed products to support formulary strategies. Kathy earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Southern California and currently resides in Irvine, California.
Rory Davies, PharmD
Vice President
Rory has over 20 years of healthcare experience, most of which spent overseeing formulary decisions for health plans. As the Chief Pharmacy Officer at Cigna Healthcare, he and his team were responsible for nearly $10 billion in annual medical and pharmacy spend and helped secure $750 million in savings by deploying traditional and non-traditional tools to reduce costs and improve member experience. Rory led the integration of medical and pharmacy data to demonstrate the value of medicine within the Cigna population, and he aligned the value assessment committees of Cigna and ESI post-acquisition. Rory earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Utah and resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Kristi Hackeman, RPh
Vice President
Kristi worked within the payer and biopharma industry for more than 20 years. Kristi was previously the Pharmacoeconomics Director at Humana and Aetna as well as Vice President of Medicare Part D at Cigna where she oversaw P&T, Trade Relations, and analytics. Over the past 6 years, she has leveraged her vast payer experience supporting biopharma clients with market access agency services and a wide range of payer market research methodologies. In addition, Kristi has been the keynote speaker on both payer and Medicare-related topics for conferences and training platforms across the US. Kristi received her pharmacy degree from Duquesne University and currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kevin Tse, PharmD
Vice President
Kevin has 14 years of market access experience. He was responsible for the medical benefit rebate contracting strategy and execution at Blue Shield CA. Kevin also worked directly with CVS/Caremark to review pharmacy benefit products, negotiate contracts, and approve formularies. Prior to BlueShield, he managed Trade and Industry relations at Envision PBM where he led the development and execution of manufacturer rebate contracting strategies. Kevin was also a consultant at Risk Strategies, where he advised many of the largest US employers on their health plan and PBM contracts. Kevin received his Doctor of Pharmacy at California Northstate University and lives in Sacramento, California.
Ethan Heidorn, PharmD
Research Director
Ethan is an experienced developer of evidence-based clinical drug category reviews for payer P&T committees, and he was the 2023 winner of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Diplomat of the Year award.
Ethan’s deep understanding of treatment paradigms across a wide range of therapeutic areas and the many, nuanced ways employer clients and benefits consultants influence payer decision-making. bolsters the expertise we bring to our clients. Ethan earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota and currently resides in Minneapolis.
Katie Swanson
Research Director
Katie has over 6 years experience leading payer, provider, and biopharma research across Medicare, Commercial, and Medicaid lines of business. Prior to joining Formulary Insights, Katie worked at Milliman, supporting the launch of over 40 products across multiple therapeutic areas, with specific concentration in specialty and biosimilar products. Katie has expertise in the development of digital and in-depth interview research, advisory boards, and mock pharmacy and therapeutics sessions to support the goals of new-to-market, line extension, and patent expiration products across all disease states.
Kristen Tripicchio, PharmD
Research Director
Kristen brings five years of managed care experience to our team. In her previous roles with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's PBM, CarelonRx, Kristen led critical enterprise utilization management strategic initiatives focused on trend mitigation for both specialty and non-specialty medications resulting in over $100M in savings. Kristen built process infrastructure for monitoring and improving performance of key formulary and UM strategies across Commercial, Exchange, and Medicaid lines of business. Kristen's experiences have led to a strong penchant for data-driven insights, innovation, and an in-depth understanding of payer clinical strategy and operations that she shares with our clients. Kristen earned her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina and resides in Hoboken, NJ.
Amy Heath
Partner
With over 23 years specializing in payer strategy and execution for a top biopharma manufacturer, Amy has worked with brand marketing and pipeline teams to develop and execute market access strategies and payer value propositions for over 50 unique brands.
Amy was an early market access expert on key biopharma pipeline trends to include specialty pharmacy, oncology, rare disease, gene therapy, and biosimilars. Amy’s areas of expertise include rebate strategies, competitive landscape mapping, early pipeline market assessments, and strengthening forecasts with payer research inputs.
Pete Vaccaro
Partner
For 24 years Pete positioned products for a top biopharma manufacturer. For the vast majority of those years, his responsibilities focused on developing, enhancing and delivering payer value propositions for over 50 unique brands across a wide range of therapeutic categories.
Pete has earned a reputation as a creative thinker with a keen sense for actionable insights and a strong bias toward results. Pete’s expertise includes early pipeline market assessments, business development and licensing evaluations, pricing & contract strategy, and biopharma-payer partnership opportunities.
Jason DeMuth
Principal
Jason has over 25 years in the healthcare industry. He is an accomplished and results-driven professional who has served in multiple market access positions within the pharmaceutical industry. With a wealth of experience and expertise in healthcare and market dynamics, he has played a pivotal role in optimizing market access strategies and driving commercial success for leading pharmaceutical companies. Jason has deep experience in working with and negotiating with GPO’s, IDN’s, health plans, PBMs, regional accounts and national accounts.
Joe Rossi
Principal
Joe has spent most of his 20-year biopharma career engaging across the full breadth of the U.S. healthcare delivery ecosystem. The core of his expertise involves how payer benefit designs are affected by a wide range of patient populations to include IDN/organized customers, government and employer groups. Joe has furthered his professional qualifications through a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, post-graduate project management work at Cornell University’s School of Engineering and his regional chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Mike Specht
Principal
Mike brings over 20 years of manufacturer experience to include account management and payer marketing roles. Mike negotiated contracts on behalf of biopharma with PBMs, health plans, government programs, and IDNs and collaborated with payers across a wide range of therapeutic areas. As a payer marketer, Mike developed successful payer segment strategies for pipeline and in-market brands to include pharmacy and medical benefit environments. Mike’s specific areas of expertise include payer strategy, innovative contracting, and strategic launch planning.
Kathy Chang, PharmD
Vice President
As the Vice President of Industry Relations, Kathy was responsible for $95B in annual drug spend across Commercial, Medicare, and Managed Medicaid for OptumRx and UnitedHealthcare. She managed a team that negotiated medical and pharmacy rebates with over 100 biopharma manufacturers and monitored the broader US payer landscape to inform analytical modeling and drive rebate competitiveness. She also led engagements with health plan, employer group, and state plan clients and developed products to support formulary strategies. Kathy earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Southern California and currently resides in Irvine, California.
Rory Davies, PharmD
Vice President
Rory has over 20 years of healthcare experience, most of which spent overseeing formulary decisions for health plans. As the Chief Pharmacy Officer at Cigna Healthcare, he and his team were responsible for nearly $10 billion in annual medical and pharmacy spend and helped secure $750 million in savings by deploying traditional and non-traditional tools to reduce costs and improve member experience. Rory led the integration of medical and pharmacy data to demonstrate the value of medicine within the Cigna population, and he aligned the value assessment committees of Cigna and ESI post-acquisition. Rory earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Utah and resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Kristi Hackeman, RPh
Vice President
Kristi worked within the payer and biopharma industry for more than 20 years. Kristi was previously the Pharmacoeconomics Director at Humana and Aetna as well as Vice President of Medicare Part D at Cigna where she oversaw P&T, Trade Relations, and analytics. Over the past 6 years, she has leveraged her vast payer experience supporting biopharma clients with market access agency services and a wide range of payer market research methodologies. In addition, Kristi has been the keynote speaker on both payer and Medicare-related topics for conferences and training platforms across the US. Kristi received her pharmacy degree from Duquesne University and currently resides in Louisville, Kentucky.
Kevin Tse, PharmD
Vice President
Kevin has 14 years of market access experience. He was responsible for the medical benefit rebate contracting strategy and execution at Blue Shield CA. Kevin also worked directly with CVS/Caremark to review pharmacy benefit products, negotiate contracts, and approve formularies. Prior to BlueShield, he managed Trade and Industry relations at Envision PBM where he led the development and execution of manufacturer rebate contracting strategies. Kevin was also a consultant at Risk Strategies, where he advised many of the largest US employers on their health plan and PBM contracts. Kevin received his Doctor of Pharmacy at California Northstate University and lives in Sacramento, California.
Ethan Heidorn, PharmD
Research Director
Ethan is an experienced developer of evidence-based clinical drug category reviews for payer P&T committees, and he was the 2023 winner of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Diplomat of the Year award.
Ethan’s deep understanding of treatment paradigms across a wide range of therapeutic areas and the many, nuanced ways employer clients and benefits consultants influence payer decision-making. bolsters the expertise we bring to our clients. Ethan earned his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota and currently resides in Minneapolis.
Kristen Tripicchio, PharmD
Research Director
Kristen brings five years of managed care experience to our team. In her previous roles with Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's PBM, CarelonRx, Kristen led critical enterprise utilization management strategic initiatives focused on trend mitigation for both specialty and non-specialty medications resulting in over $100M in savings. Kristen built process infrastructure for monitoring and improving performance of key formulary and UM strategies across Commercial, Exchange, and Medicaid lines of business. Kristen's experiences have led to a strong penchant for data-driven insights, innovation, and an in-depth understanding of payer clinical strategy and operations that she shares with our clients. Kristen earned her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of North Carolina and resides in Hoboken, NJ.
Katie Swanson
Research Director
Katie has over 6 years experience leading payer, provider, and biopharma research across Medicare, Commercial, and Medicaid lines of business. Prior to joining Formulary Insights, Katie worked at Milliman, supporting the launch of over 40 products across multiple therapeutic areas, with specific concentration in specialty and biosimilar products. Katie has expertise in the development of digital and in-depth interview research, advisory boards, and mock pharmacy and therapeutics sessions to support the goals of new-to-market, line extension, and patent expiration products across all disease states.
Amy Heath
Partner
With over 23 years specializing in payer strategy and execution for a top biopharma manufacturer, Amy has worked with brand marketing and pipeline teams to develop and execute market access strategies and payer value propositions for over 50 unique brands.
Amy was an early market access expert on key biopharma pipeline trends to include specialty pharmacy, oncology, rare disease, gene therapy, and biosimilars. Amy’s areas of expertise include rebate strategies, competitive landscape mapping, early pipeline market assessments, and strengthening forecasts with payer research inputs.
Pete Vaccaro
Partner
For 24 years Pete positioned products for a top biopharma manufacturer. For the vast majority of those years, his responsibilities focused on developing, enhancing and delivering payer value propositions for over 50 unique brands across a wide range of therapeutic categories.
Pete has earned a reputation as a creative thinker with a keen sense for actionable insights and a strong bias toward results. Pete’s expertise includes early pipeline market assessments, business development and licensing evaluations, pricing & contract strategy, and biopharma-payer partnership opportunities.
Jason DeMuth
Principal
Jason has over 25 years in the healthcare industry. He is an accomplished and results-driven professional who has served in multiple market access positions within the pharmaceutical industry. With a wealth of experience and expertise in healthcare and market dynamics, he has played a pivotal role in optimizing market access strategies and driving commercial success for leading pharmaceutical companies. Jason has deep experience in working with and negotiating with GPO’s, IDN’s, health plans, PBMs, regional accounts and national accounts.
Joe Rossi
Principal
Joe has spent most of his 20-year biopharma career engaging across the full breadth of the U.S. healthcare delivery ecosystem. The core of his expertise involves how payer benefit designs are affected by a wide range of patient populations to include IDN/organized customers, government and employer groups. Joe has furthered his professional qualifications through a master’s degree in Healthcare Administration, post-graduate project management work at Cornell University’s School of Engineering and his regional chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives.
Mike Specht
Principal
Mike brings over 20 years of manufacturer experience to include account management and payer marketing roles. Mike negotiated contracts on behalf of biopharma with PBMs, health plans, government programs, and IDNs and collaborated with payers across a wide range of therapeutic areas. As a payer marketer, Mike developed successful payer segment strategies for pipeline and in-market brands to include pharmacy and medical benefit environments. Mike’s specific areas of expertise include payer strategy, innovative contracting, and strategic launch planning.
Leveraging my Cigna experience to help manufacturers improve access for patients is some of the most rewarding work I've done.
A deep understanding of payer interests is paramount, and I’m fortunate to be uniquely qualified to help clients bridge the space with payers to ensure patient access.
Leveraging my experience to generate actionable insights from our panel of active payer decision makers allows me to help clients see the market in entirely new ways.
Understanding market access is one thing; communicating that understanding to payers is quite another. I have a passion for helping clients with both.