INNOVATIVE RX STRATEGIES - Key Persons
Amy Ball, PharmD, is the president of Innovative Rx Strategies. In this role she is responsible for all aspects of leadership for the company. Her expertise and focus on clinical, contract and operational strategies has helped employers make sound clinical drug coverage decisions and uncover cost savings opportunities while maximizing the value of their pharmacy benefits.
Over the past 30 years, she has worked for or consulted with health care organizations, hospital systems, national health plans, PBMs and large, self-funded employers across the United States.
Prior to joining Innovative Rx Strategies in 2022, Dr. Ball was the chief pharmacy officer at Health Strategy for more than 12 years. She was responsible for client management and clinical strategy, helping self-funded employers and health plans develop and implement strategic clinical and economic decisions to manage pharmacy trend.
Previous to Dr. Ball's role at Health Strategy, she was the manager of clinical research for Competitive Health Analytics (CHA) at Humana Pharmacy Solutions responsible for strategic planning, management of daily operations for the corporate research team, conducting research and business development.
Before her tenure at Humana, Dr. Ball spent 10 years at Pfizer as a medical outcomes specialist. In this role, she worked with health care professionals, health systems, national health plans, PBMs and large, self-funded employers. She was responsible for conducting outcomes research and pharmacoeconomic analyses, drug utilization evaluations, clinical presentations and pharmacy strategy development for her clients.
Job Titles:
- Director of Medical Claims Surveillance
- Member of the Orange Theory Fitness
Outside of work, Biz is a member of the Orange Theory Fitness community and is always seeking opportunities to stay active. True to her Michigan roots, she loves being out on the lake and skiing - no matter what time of year. She also enjoys reading and listening to music or podcasts.
Job Titles:
- Director of Health Analytics
Connor serves as the director of Health Analytics at Innovative Rx Strategies. His work focuses on maximizing affordability in health care by creating processes and developing analytics platforms that provide quantifiable evidence for data-driven insights and solutions.
In this role, Connor supports organizational data strategy by designing resources and creating reporting tools that monitor vendor performance and emerging market trends to inform pharmacy payers and enterprise stakeholders about their pharmacy benefit costs. He is also involved with Apex Benefits' DEI Committee to promote awareness, equity and inclusion in the workplace.
Connor began his health and benefits career in account management at Health Strategy (HSLLC), a pharmacy benefits consulting firm based out of Chicago, Illinois. While at HSLLC, he advised on pharmacy benefit arrangements for self-funded employer benefit plans. He helped employers actively manage their health care costs and align employee health benefit offerings with enterprise-level objectives.
Prior to joining Innovative, Connor worked with the Group Purchasing Organization at the BlueCross BlueShield Association (BCBSA), a federation of Blue Cross and Blue Shield companies that collectively service a variety of global health markets. By refining operations for BCBSA medical pharmacy programs offered to client health plans, Connor's work incentivized patient access and lowered total costs of care for targeted, preventative medicines, novel biologics and biosimilars through direct partnerships with pharmaceutical manufacturers. He also led a small team of technical analysts to implement a novel cellular/gene therapy medical outcome-rebate program.
Connor completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, earning bachelor's degrees in Biochemistry and Spanish as well as a master's degree in Applied Economics.
Cameron works across departments to implement, analyze and refine processes for the entire Innovative Rx Strategies organization. This includes PBM RFPs, market checks, annual reconciliations, no risk assessments, and new client setup.
Prior to joining Innovative in 2023, Cameron worked as a retail pharmacist with Jay-C Food stores (a Kroger subsidiary) for 14 years, where he was a co-pharmacy leader. During this time, he built a deep understanding of the relationship between patient care and the business aspects of pharmacy such as pharmacy inventory, employee scheduling, technology implementation, new hire training and order fulfillment.
Cameron is also dedicated to his community, serving as a high school baseball and soccer coach for his alma mater Shawe Memorial High School. He is also a board member for Friends of Shawe and Pope John, an endowment group that supports catholic education in Jefferson County, IN. In 2022 he was awarded the Golden Shamrock award for years of service and volunteer efforts supporting Shawe and Pope John schools. He is an avid sports fan and current season ticket holder with FC Cincinnati. Cameron earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Butler University in 2009.
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Leader at Apex Benefits
Jim is also a leader at Apex Benefits, Innovative's parent company. Through his experiences as a benefits advisor, Jim brings unique perspectives which create opportunities for benefits advisors, third-party administrators and health systems and plans to secure pharmacy benefit cost-savings for their clients.
Job Titles:
- Vice President, Employer Channel
Karen serves as Vice President, Employer Channel at Innovative Rx Strategies and is responsible for planning, strategy and reporting for employer channel clients. She leverages her expertise to provide ongoing consultation to ensure the effective execution of client objectives and the PBM contract.
Prior to re-joining Innovative Rx Strategies in October 2023, Karen spent more than 30 years of her career in the PBM market. She has worked for two of the largest PBMs - CVS Caremark and Optum Rx, and in PBM Consulting for Innovative Rx Strategies and The Burchfield Group, an Aon company. Karen also spent 7 years at Change Healthcare, focusing on healthcare technology, revenue, and payment cycle management.
Karen has extensive client management experience and has overseen all areas of the pharmacy benefit such as managing RFP's, contracting, financial reconciliations, trend and benefit design consultation, implementations and PBM negotiations. She has worked with employer clients, governmental entities and unions. She leverages a deep understanding of the complexities of PBMs and the market space to serve Innovative clients.
Karen earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Communications from Augustana College and resides in the Chicagoland area. In her free time, she enjoys volunteering for various organizations that serve her community.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Account Managment
- Vice President, Account Management
As the Vice President of Account Managment at Innovative Rx Strategies, Kelly provides advocacy and strategic support to help clients navigate management of their prescription drug benefits and associated vendor partnerships
Prior to joining the team at Innovative, Kelly spent 10 years working for Caterpillar in Total Rewards, where she led a dedicated team focused on promoting clinically appropriate pharmacy utilization while managing trend and achieving lowest net cost pharmacy outcomes. In this role, Kelly was responsible for management of custom drug formularies, utilization management criteria, PBM contracting and direct pharmacy contracting.
Kelly's experience also includes 14 years in the Prescription Benefit Management space where she acquired a deep understanding of the industry from directing quality assurance and technical teams, developing adjudication systems, reporting and analytics as well as leading account managment teams and supporting key client relationships.
Kelly is passionate about understanding Innovative Rx Strategies clients' needs and providing support and solutions that go beyond basic service to create and deliver real value.
Previous roles:
Senior Manager - US Healthcare Benefits, Caterpillar Inc.
Account Management, Prairie States Enterprise
Director of Operations, Premiere Choice Association Management
Client Benefits and Services - Department Manager, RESTAT (PBM)
Job Titles:
- Vice President of Clinical Account Management
As the Vice President of Clinical Account Management, Dr. Matusik provides clinical oversight and support for Innovative Rx Strategies employer, trust fund and TPA segments. He monitors both the specialty and non-specialty pipelines to keep clients informed of new drugs to market, while reviewing client reports and plan designs to ensure clients remain on the cutting of pharmacy benefit management. His refers to his unique approach as "Pharmaceutical Forensics" - digging deep into what is driving overall pharmacy trends and what may be impacting Innovative clients at the individual claims level.
Dr. Matusik is a residency-trained, managed care pharmacist with over 28 years of experience. He joins Innovative with an extensive array of managed care experiences ranging from program and product development with immunizations and clinical research, to providing clinical consulting to regional health plans, employers, PBMs and health systems. Beginning his pharmacy career as a tech and pharmacist within the hospital setting, Dr. Matusik is well equipped to address and understand the entire continuum of the pharmacy space and provide a unique perspective within the pharmacy benefits world.
Dr. Matusik sits on the Board of Directors for Access to Care, a non-profit that provides primary healthcare to uninsured and under insured people in suburban Cook County, Illinois. He is also a founding member of Somebody Else, a volunteer group dedicated to keeping the community clean through activities such as Adopt-a-Highway. During the summer months, he enjoys golfing, boating and traveling to see his family and friends. During the winter he is an avid bowler and enjoys playing fantasy football. He has been married to his wife, Barb for more than 32 years, has three adult children and a dog (Duke).
Job Titles:
- Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist
- Vice President of Clinical Strategy
Megan received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Purdue University and has over 14 years of pharmacy expertise. She is responsible for coordinating pharmacy benefit consulting and providing any pharmacy and medication-related support to Innovative Rx clients.
Before joining Innovative Rx, Megan spent 10 years at a local health system as a pharmacist and leader. Most recently she supported a team of 40, providing clinical services to patients and developing the population health strategy for Medicare Advantage and Commercial plans as director of the Ambulatory Care Pharmacy. She also supported the network through a pharmacy benefit plan redesign and vendor change - and experienced firsthand the positive impact of focusing on pharmacy benefits.
In addition to her years of experience, Megan is a Board Certified Ambulatory Care Pharmacist. She was the 2019 Excellence in Innovation Pharmacy Award winner for the state of Indiana, 2021 Indiana Health System Pharmacist of the year, and currently is serving an appointment as national committee chair to the practice sustainability section of one of the largest national pharmacy organizations.
Previous roles:
Ambulatory Care Pharmacy Director, Community Health Network
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Community Health Network
Pharmacy Faculty, Community Health Network
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Indiana University Health
Pharmacotherapy Resident, Butler University
Job Titles:
- Director of Clinical and Account Management
As Director of Clinical and Account Management, Nicole leads day-to-day consulting and account management for self-funded employers. Her primary objective is to ensure the effective execution of client goals and the PBM contract. She will provide leadership to clients to ensure strategic initiatives are created and implemented, issues are identified and resolved in a timely manner and client satisfaction is achieved. Nicole will be a part of the clinical strategy team and work closely with the Vice President of Clinical Strategy and the Director of Operations to drive clinical strategy and operational process.
Before joining Innovative in October 2023, Nicole spent 11 years at Purdue University as a pharmacist and director. During her tenure, she transformed the onsite community pharmacy from a traditional dispensing pharmacy to a cutting-edge pharmacy, offering a variety of clinical services including vaccinations, travel health consultations, women's health consultations, prescribing via collaborative practice agreement and medication injection administration services.
Throughout her time at Purdue, Nicole served on various benefits committees. She led the launch of an onsite employee health clinic, participated in RFP reviews and planned pharmacy benefit design. Nicole also supported the University through COVID with her work on vaccine roll out through vaccine education, planning and implementation on campus. Nicole earned her Doctor of Pharmacy Degree from Purdue University in 2008, and her MBA from Ball State University in 2020. She received the Pharmacy Women's Leadership Award in 2023 from Purdue University's College of Pharmacy and served on the Tippecanoe County Board of Health as president from 2018-2021. Most recently, she has been selected to serve as a co-chair on the launch committee for the new Purdue Alumni Medical Network. Outside of work, Nicole enjoys spending time at the lake, reading a good book, and coaching softball with her daughter's team as well as her son's co-ed basketball team.
Sarah will be working closely with our VP of Clinical Strategy to provide pharmacist-level support to our clients. She will also support our broker channel by assisting with PBM RFPs and investigating high-cost claims to help mitigate client spending.
Sarah joined Innovative Rx Strategies in July 2024 after receiving her Doctor of Pharmacy from Purdue University. Prior to her residency role, she interned at Indiana University Health and Johns Hopkins Hospital, served as President for Purdue's American Pharmacists Association - Academy of Student Pharmacists where she led 180 students, and conducted various research projects aimed at expanding health equity.
Sarah is a recent graduate from Purdue University College of Pharmacy and now resides in Westfield, IN with her fiancé. She is a member of the F45 Training community and enjoys any opportunity to exercise, cook new recipes or read a book.
Shravan received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from The Ohio State University. Throughout his PharmD program, he interned at a clinical pharmacy providing medication therapy management programs to patients, thus ensuring patients were getting the most benefit out of their medications while also preventing any medication-related adverse events. Motivated by the issues related to rising drug costs and spending, Shravan has developed a keen interest in managed care pharmacy and is excited to join the Innovative team as a pharmacist in serving clients by supporting their pharmacy benefits.