Lyndsay Ridgway, MS (Moderator)
Associate Director of Financial Counseling
Penn Medicine - University of Pennsylvania Health System
Lyndsay Ridgway, MS is the associate director of financial counseling at Penn Medicine and specializes in overseeing the development of key financial navigation programs and enhancing the patient experience. With over 10 years of experience working alongside Revenue Cycle and Patient Access leaders, she leads a team of 20 highly skilled patient financial advocates and financial counselors and is dedicated to creating best practices within the health industry to reduce patient financial toxicity. She firmly believes in the power of connection and feels that transparency is a true driver in ensuring patient trust and confidence in their care.
Ridgway holds a master’s degree in organizational leadership and is a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, the National Association of Healthcare Access Management, and the American Association of Healthcare Administration Management, among others. Her skillset includes team building, strategic planning, and change management.
Arnela Kajdic-Tarantino, CTFC
Program Manager - PFM, Patient Financial Experience
St. Luke’s Cancer Institute- Center for Blood Cancer Therapy
Arnela Kajdic-Tarantino is a certified transplant financial coordinator and program manager for the Center for Blood Cancer Therapy at St. Luke’s Cancer Institute in Boise, Idaho. She facilitates bone marrow, stem cell transplant, and immunotherapy processes, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, and acts as a liaison between revenue cycle, claims and billing, payer relations, internal contracting, and clinic and patient financial advocates. She also creates and implements training workflows for patient financial advocates specific to CAR T-cell therapy, manages internal data reports and dashboards, and leads revenue cycle workgroup initiatives.
Kajdic-Tarantino serves on the Transplant Financial Coordinator Association Committee and ACCC’s Financial Advocacy Network Education Task Force. With over 18 years of experience in health care, she is a passionate financial advocate and works to minimize financial toxicity for patients as well as support other financial advocates through training and educational initiatives. Kajdic-Tarantino earned her bachelor’s degree in health science from Boise State University in Idaho.
Elizabeth Weber, RN
Cellular Therapy Coordinator
Penn Medicine - University of Pennsylvania Health System
Elizabeth Weber, RN is the commercial cellular therapy coordinator at Penn Medicine. In her current role, she collaborates with leadership to establish organizational systems to safely provide patient care for cellular therapy candidates. Her responsibilities include coordination of complex care for cellular therapy recipients (actual or potential) as patients navigate through the evaluation of, preparation for and care post cellular therapy infusion as well as provision of ongoing patient/family education based on evaluation of the individual needs of patients/families. She also collaborates with manufacturers, professional organizations, and other institutions to disseminate information regarding lessons learned about commercial cellular therapy programs and development of the cellular therapy coordinator role.
Weber is a registered nurse and received her nursing degree from Widener University in Pennsylvania.