INITIATIVES TASK FORCE

Amanda Borges-McCay is the financial navigator for oncology services at Sutter Health Oncology Service Line in Modesto, Calif. Her work in healthcare advocacy began when her father was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy in 1990 and she and her family had to advocate for his care and equipment. Soon after, Borges-McCay began volunteering at a long-term care facility where her mother worked. Borges-McCay officially started her career in healthcare as an activity director at an assisted living facility and eventually worked up to an assistant administrator role. She later transitioned to a hospital setting, where she expanded her knowledge and skillset within cardiology, labor and delivery, and orthopedics.

Borges-McCay’s advocacy skills were put to use on an even more personal level when she and her daughter were diagnosed with a rare genetic mutation and faced high out-of-pocket costs for their medications. Like many other patients facing financial barriers, Borges-McCay had to find her own resources and advocate for herself and her family. As fate would have it, she fell in love with the infusion center where she received her treatments and soon joined its team, a transition that put her in the right place at the right time.

Borges-McCay’s personal experiences and career path prepared her to create a financial navigation pilot program, where she has demonstrated the efficacy of an oncology financial navigator at the local and system levels.

Jacqueline Cabán is a medication assistance program coordinator at Yale New Haven Health. She assists in minimizing financial toxicity for her patients and institution through education and utilization of available market resources, such as manufacturer-sponsored assistance programs and independent foundation assistance. She aided in implementing the medication assistance program at Yale New Haven Health over a decade ago, which led to achieving the “best in practice award” within the organization in contribution to the patient experience.

Cabán has nearly 20 years of pharmacy experience and graduated with a Master of Public Administration with an emphasis in healthcare management. She also has experience in revenue cycle management and hospital-based outpatient pharmacy billing. Cabán is passionate about bridging the gap in healthcare disparities through continual growth and facilitating awareness across the nation. This has led to her joining and continued involvement in diverse task forces and patient assistance committees. Growing up an English as a second language learner, Cabán has cultivated a personal focus in helping address and bridge healthcare disparity gaps.

Rachel Dauer, JD, is a patient financial navigator specializing in generating creative, proactive solutions to minimize financial toxicity in patients with cancer. She developed and implemented the financial navigation program at Susan G. Komen Colorado and Carol’s Wish Financial Navigation—a program of the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance—where she serves as director.

Dauer has presented on cancer-related financial toxicity and solutions through use of financial navigation at national and local conferences. She is a graduate of the Association of Cancer Care Centers Financial Advocacy Network boot camp levels one and two and the NaVectis Group financial navigator training. Additionally, Dauer brings analytical skills from her previous experience as an attorney to her current role.

Amy Elgin is the oncology patient resource coordinator at AnMed Health Cancer Center. She has worked in the medical field for over 20 years. Elgin assists patients and their families in myriad ways, such as arranging transportation, assisting with insurance and financial questions, completing Medicaid and charity assistance program applications, providing information on educational and community resources, filing claims to cancer policies, and directing patients through the process of applying for disability insurance. Elgin works in collaboration with clinical and support staff to establish connections to resources that supplement and enhance patients’ overall well-being.

Elgin graduated from Greenville Technical College with an Associate of Arts. She has continued to further her education by completing the Association of Cancer Care Centers Financial Advocacy Network boot camp levels one and two, CPR certification, South Carolina notary certification, mental health first aid certification, and the NaVectis Group’s financial navigation training program.

Firas El Chaer, MD, is a hematology and medical oncology specialist, and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Virginia, Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center.

In addition to infectious diseases in immunocompromised patients with cancer, Dr. El Chaer specializes in hematologic malignancies and stem cell transplantation, and has been working on improving the outcomes for acute leukemias in adults by focusing on targeted therapies and overcoming resistance mechanisms.

Dr. El Chaer completed a dedicated fellowship in infectious diseases—in which he is board certified—at Baylor College of Medicine and MD Anderson Cancer Center joint program. He is a recipient of the Arnold P. Gold Humanism Honor Society Award for role model physician teacher and excellence in clinical care, leadership, compassion, and dedication to service.

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.

Ashkan Emadi, MD, PhD, is a hematologist/medical oncologist, organic chemist, and professor of medicine and pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Marlene & Stewart Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center (UMGCCC).

He has been working on changing the outcomes for acute leukemias in adults by designing, conducting, and analyzing rationally-based innovative strategies that will positively affect cures and translate into prolongation of meaningful survival. His in-depth knowledge and experience in organic chemistry and drug design, pre-clinical and clinical development, and drug approval covers the entire spectrum of drug development.

Dr. Emadi developed novel methodologies for the regiospecific synthesis of multiple naphthoquinone derivatives related to the natural product conocurvone, which exhibit HIV integrase inhibitory activity as well as anti-neoplastic activity. His clinical translational research is focused on exploiting and targeting glutamine and glucose metabolic pathways in neoplastic cells. He is the principal investigator of fully funded investigator-initiated clinical trials for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed and relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML) involving tryptophan and glutamine metabolisms.

Dr. Emadi is a recipient of the Martin and Mary Kilpatrick Award for exceptional ability and promise in chemistry and outstanding achievement in chemical research.

Christi Miller is the patient assistance system manager at Bon Secours, St. Francis Millennium Cancer Center. Miller manages the financial navigation team for the entire ministry, overseeing multiple infusion centers and managing 21 financial navigators. She actively collaborates with Bon Secours’ leadership, specialty pharmacy, inpatient pharmacy, and physician practices to expand the St. Francis Millennium Cancer Center’s financial navigation footprint across the ministry.

In addition to this expansion, Miller is creating standardized processes and a compliance program for her team to ensure the navigation program remains focused on assisting patients with insurance optimization and financial toxicity via assistance programs while preventing unnecessary revenue loss for the ministry.

Francinna Scott-Jones, ROCC, CPAR, FACCC, is a knowledgeable professional specializing in healthcare revenue cycle. She is the financial coordinator for the Radiation Oncology Department at Northside Hospital Cancer Institute in Atlanta, Ga. For the past 25 years, Scott-Jones has focused her talents on radiation oncology. She has been responsible for the revenue cycle process for freestanding radiation oncology centers and outpatient hospital-based facilities. In a previous role, Scott-Jones served as the billing and reimbursement director of a central business office for a large radiation oncology practice management company. That office was responsible for billing and collections for 24 practices located throughout the U S.

Scott-Jones is passionate about working to mitigate disparities to accessing healthcare. She believes that quality healthcare is a right that should be afforded to all people regardless of their race and/or socioeconomic background. Working with the Association of Cancer Care Centers Financial Advocacy Network aligns Scott-Jones with her goal to make a difference in oncology patients’ lives.

Heather Simpson is a patient financial navigator at Allina Health Cancer Institute in River Falls, Wisc., and Hastings, Minn. She has worked in healthcare for over 30 years. Two years after Simpson joined Allina Health’s patient access team, she began addressing oncology patients’ billing questions and concerns, eventually offering financial counseling to patients who were beginning treatment.

Simpson developed and implemented a lung cancer screening program at her organization and works with the institute’s Commission on Cancer accreditation as an integrated network, designing prevention and screening events across each location’s communities to promote cancer awareness. Simpson is a graduate of the Association of Cancer Care Centers Financial Advocacy Network boot camp and a board-certified patient advocate.

Gretchen Van Dyck is a financial counselor at Green Bay Oncology in Green Bay, Wisc. In that capacity, Van Dyck has worked with multiple departments, including medical, radiation, and gynecology oncology. Her responsibilities span helping patients understand their insurance benefits and obtain prior authorizations for treatment, imaging, prescriptions, and more to—most importantly—being an advocate for her patients in any way they need. The last thing Van Dyck wants is for her patients to worry about treatment-related costs or their insurance. She is excited to be part of the Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) Financial Advocacy Network and will continue to work with ACCC to create resources and opportunities to support financial and patient advocacy.

Christina White, MBA, GRMS, is the director of supportive and integrative programs at Summa Health System in Akron, Ohio. In her current role, White oversees the program’s oncology dietitians, social workers, massage therapists, art therapists, patient support navigators, financial support navigators, billers, coders, and authorization specialists. With this oversight, she creates a more streamlined and compassionate patient experience for patients prior to diagnosis and into survivorship. White coordinates the health system’s uninsured mammography program and developed its oncology financial navigation team.

White is extremely passionate about providing supportive and integrative services to patients with cancer to ease their and their family’s burdens. She obtained her Lean Six Sigma Green Belt for leading a patient financial navigation project and has presented nationally multiple times to cancer programs and practices participating in the Oncology Care Model on financial navigation and how to obtain resources for patients.