Capitol Street Webinar Series

Capitol Street is pleased to host a series of informative webinars featuring respected industry leaders throughout the year. We welcome you to replay these previous session recordings using the password provided, and hope to have you join a live session in the future.

In this webinar, America’s Health Insurance Plans’ (AHIP) Mark Hamelburg discusses Medicare Advantage in 2025: What Now? CMS dealt a blow to Medicare Advantage plans and value based care providers with a nearly identical cut as proposed to pay for plans in 2025. Mark discusses AHIP’s take on what happened, why, winners & losers, as well as what the trade associations will be doing to message the impact on services and beneficiaries.

Mark Hamelburg is the senior vice president of federal programs at America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP). He has more than 25 years of private sector and government experience, including service as a senior official at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and time at the Department of Treasury. Mr. Hamelburg currently leads AHIP’s policy development and regulatory agenda for all of the industry’s federal program participation. This includes popular programs such as Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, and Medicaid. At CMS, Mr. Hamelburg served as the director of the Medicare Part C (Medicare Advantage) and Part D Analysis Group in the Office of Legislation. Before that, he was the director of the Employer Policy and Operations Group at CMS.

The webinar features founder Ipsita Smolinski and Senior Policy Advisor Tom Kornfield’s discussion of the Final 2025 MA Rates. Throughout this conversation, they discussed similarities and differences between the proposed rates and the final rates, which feature a negative impact on MA plans & VBC providers. Additionally, they spoke about the new Part D risk model, a separate MA “clean up rule”, v28, Stars and FFS growth rates and Part C and D normalization.

The webinar features founder Ipsita Smolinski and Senior Policy Advisor Tom Kornfield’s discussion of the recent 2025 MA Rate Notice and Part D Call letter from CMS. Throughout this conversation, they discussed growth rate, Stars, normalization, v28, coding intensity, and other policies that came from the release. Additionally, they talked through other key points on Part D, like CMS’ guidance to restructure the drug benefit to account for a new $2,000 OOP cap along with new manufacturer and insurer liabilities in the catastrophic phase (per IRA). They also touched on MedPAC analyses, transparency RFI, and incremental guidance (2025) on supplemental benefits, D-SNP, prior authorization, and marketing guidelines.

The presentation features founder Ipsita Smolinski and the Capitol Street team’s thorough discussion of 2024 must-pass bills, healthcare themes, election outlook, catalysts, likely headlines, and industry impacts by sector.

In this session, we talk with guest speaker Katelin Lucariello, PhRMA’s representative on the ground in Colorado. Katelin shared insights on the State of Colorado Prescription Drug Affordability Review Board (PDAB) and its affordability reviews for Genvoya (GILD), Enbrel (AMGN), & Trikafta (VRTX). Other inputs and factors such as the implementation of the IRA at the federal level were discussed. 

Katelin Lucariello, MPH serves as Senior Director of State Policy for PhRMA’s Rocky Mountain Region. Katelin is responsible for providing analysis and guidance on state legislative and regulatory actions impacting the biopharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining PhRMA, Katelin spent a decade working in state health policy consulting for a range of health care stakeholders.

In this session, we talk with guest speaker Stephanie Quinn to discuss ACO REACH progress and pay reforms overall as CMMI strives to reach its 2030 goal, as well as other models (oncology care, pending drug models impacting cell & gene therapy). 

Stephanie Quinn is senior vice president of advocacy, practice advancement, and policy at the American Academy of Family Physicians where she oversees the AAFP Divisions of Government Relations and Practice Advancement.

Before joining the AAFP, Stephanie Quinn was vice president of federal government affairs at CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield. She led the company’s federal legislative agenda on issues such as market stability, drug pricing policy, and social determinants of health.

In this session, we join guest speaker Jill Rathbun in discussing that while AI is advancing, outcomes have not been all roses. Sustained adoption of AI through the current reimbursement framework may be challenging in a fee-for-service (FFS) environment, but as value-based payment models evolve and adapt, AI is posed to become an even more valuable tool for healthcare systems and individual providers.

Jill Rathbun is the founder and manager partner of Galileo Consulting Group and a senior advisor at Capitol Street. She works with organizations and provides them with legislative and regulatory strategies regarding Medicare and private insurance reimbursement, federal funding for public health service programs and disease-specific research, and the creation of new government programs and policies that address prevention, wellness, public health education, biomedical research, and the delivery of health care. Jill Rathbun is also recognized as an expert in various Medicare fee schedules and regulations for all sites of service.

Before founding the Galileo Consulting Group, Inc., Ms. Rathbun directed the Health Care Practice Group at Smith, Bucklin & Associates, and led strategic and government affairs initiatives as a director at numerous national health care and human services associations located in Washington, DC.