Avalere Health announces its new strategic advisor, Lisa Joldersma. Lisa adds more than two decades of experience working in Washington, DC, for leading pharmaceutical and health plan trade associations and for the federal government. She has worked on the design and implementation of the transformative budget reconciliations of the 1990s, the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, the Affordable Care Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The result is comprehensive expertise and strategic instinct on matters including Medicare Part D, Medicare Advantage, federal- and state-regulated health insurance, healthcare cost transparency, patient assistance, health equity, safety-net programs including Medicaid and 340B, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). As a strategic advisor, Lisa will bring this expertise to bear to support Avalere’s life sciences and health plan clients.

“The tremendous breadth and depth of Lisa’s healthcare expertise means she has her finger on the pulse of the federal and state policy issues that are most important to drug manufacturers, plans, and PBMs,” said Miryam Frieder, practice director. “Her exceptional understanding of how policies affect the stakeholder landscape will be invaluable at a time when the implementation of the IRA is ramping up.”

Before engaging with Avalere, Lisa was a senior vice president for policy and research at PhRMA, where she engaged in state and federal policy development and advocacy on behalf of the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to that, Lisa was a managing director of policy and regulation at the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. She also worked for several years at the  Office of Legislation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, serving Republican and Democrat administrations.

Lisa says, “Throughout my career in Washington, I have looked to Avalere for independent, data-backed analysis and advising on the most important healthcare policy issues of the day. Following the IRA’s passage, biopharmaceutical companies and health plans are in a sprint to adapt to massive changes in Medicare’s coverage and payment for prescription medicines. I look forward to engaging with Avalere and their clients to deliver sound analysis and creative policy options at such a critical time.”

Lisa holds a JD from the University of Michigan and a BA from Hope College.