Q: Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Salisbury, Maryland, a town of about 25,000 on the Delmarva Peninsula.
Q: Where did you go to college/graduate school?
I went to the University of Maryland, where I studied physiology/neurobiology, graduating in 2001. I attended law school at Tulane in New Orleans, graduating in 2005.
Q: What are your favorites?
Food: Plenty of favorites, but I’ll go with steamed crabs with Old Bay
Movie: Ghostbusters
Musicians: Counting Crows, Franz Ferdinand, Van Morrison
Destination: Probably Spain or Italy
Q: What do you like to do outside of work?
I started ice skating when I was 35 and joined an adult ice hockey recreational league a couple of years later. I’ve been playing with the same group ever since. I also picked up the guitar a few years ago and have been getting close to functional.
Q: What kind of work does your company do in 340B and what makes it stand out?
Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville is the premier law firm for 340B program covered entities and provider-supporting stakeholders. Our drug pricing practice chair, Bill von Oehsen, has been helping 340B covered entities since he helped create the program back in 1992 and helped create the precursor to 340B Health. Since then, the firm has consistently focused on the 340B program and boasts multiple partner-level and associate attorneys who focus primarily on helping covered entities.
Q: Why did you choose to work in the 340B space?
I have a science background, and my parents and brother are all health care providers (two nurse practitioners and an RN). I got some early exposure to the 340B program working on litigation involving drug manufacturers overcharging the Medicaid program. My mother’s family carries a rather rare X-linked genetic condition, agammaglobulinemia, which requires monthly treatment with IVIG, so I was interested in drug access and affordability. Bill von Oehsen was looking for an associate with some 340B experience and drug access interest back in 2012, and the past 11 years have flown by.
Q: What do you feel is your most significant contribution to the 340B world or to a 340B customer/client?
I think the most visible impact I have had has been in working with state federally-qualified health center primary care associations to draft and promote legislation that protects 340B program covered entities from reimbursement discrimination and other types of PBM pickpocketing. Getting those statutes across the finish line in West Virginia, Ohio, and Illinois and working on legislation for other states helped to normalize the idea that payers cannot pay less to covered entities and appropriate the 340B discount for themselves and their shareholders. I am very proud of the work I have done for individual clients, and can think of a few occasions where I think we made a real difference for an entire community.
Q: What advice do you have for a young professional who has recently launched a career in the 340B space?
For attorneys in particular, think of the 340B space as more than just 340B program compliance. A lot of questions that start as 340B questions are really broader health care questions, and you will have to be ready to field questions on HIPAA, Medicare and Medicaid, DEA and FDA issues, and unique transactional questions. Unlike other areas of health care law, you are going to be working with pharmacists and providers and will probably need to get a lot deeper into the weeds than you would in other areas of healthcare law. Most importantly, send me your resume.
For questions, Jason can be reached at Jason.Reddish@PowersLaw.com
