Arnela Kajdic-Tarantino, CTFC, is a program manager and liaison between revenue cycle, internal contracting, and clinic and patient financial advocates at the Center for Blood Cancer Therapy at St. Luke's Cancer Institute. She created and implemented training workflows for patient financial advocates specific to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell immunotherapies as well as bone marrow and stem cell transplant. Additionally, Kajdic-Tarantino co-leads the revenue cycle workgroup in initiatives and implementation stages of the CAR T-cell therapy program at St. Luke's Cancer Institute.
Kajdic-Tarantino has worked in the medical field for 18 years. In her role at a community pharmacy, Kajdic-Tarantino developed a passion for helping patients with financial toxicity. She started as a patient financial advocate for an individual who was receiving a bone marrow transplant and has continued to address the financial toxicity experienced by oncology patients. Kajdic-Tarantino does so while supporting various departments in understanding patients from all angles (eg, registration, financial advocacy, prior authorization, in-network contracts, billing), with a patient-centered focus.
Kajdic-Tarantino is a member of the Association of Cancer Care Centers Financial Advocacy Network Initiatives Task Force and has participated in the CANCER BUZZ podcast. She graduated from Boise State University with a bachelor’s degree in health science with a psychology minor.