Our Team

 

Based in Washington, D.C., Capitol Street is a boutique healthcare research & consulting firm that focuses on health policy research and economic analysis. The firm was founded in 2009, with the main goal of helping our clients understand the most impactful policy and market trends so they can plan for what is ahead.

Ipsita Smolinski

Founder & Managing Director

Ipsita Smolinski is a veteran advisor on healthcare regulatory and legislative issues with over 20 years of experience in healthcare policy and economic analysis. As the Managing Director of Capitol Street, she advises clients on key trends and major actions coming out of Washington, D.C., as well as at the state, court and stakeholder levels. These include healthcare legislation moving on Capitol Hill, actions from…

Ji Lee

HEALTHCARE POLICY ASSOCIATE

Ji is an Associate navigating the complexity of federal healthcare policies and their nuanced impact on the biopharmaceutical and related healthcare industries. She leads the Life Sciences practice and understands deeply Part B, D, Medicaid formularies & rebates, as well as relevant private sector and ICER initiatives in addition to health plan / supply chain interactions. She also knows the companies (and therapeutic areas) that operate in the biopharma and medical device & technology spaces. Ji graduated from Ithaca College in 2014 with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and holds a Master of Public Health from George Washington University with a concentration in Health Policy.

Sannidhi Shashikiran

HEALTHCARE POLICY ASSOCIATE

Sannidhi is an Associate focusing on the economic impact of federal health policy on the services industry, focusing on the payer-provider landscape such as Medicare Advantage, Medicaid, Hospitals and Value-Based Care. She graduated from Georgetown University with a BS in Healthcare Management & Policy and a minor in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention.

Reona Pereira

STAFF

At Capitol Street, Reona has focused on pharmaceutical policy issues, specifically the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and therapies as well as state and federal efforts to lower drug prices. She studies Healthcare Management and Gender Studies at Georgetown University (graduating in 2023) and is passionate about ensuring equitable access to affordable care by working to depoliticize women’s healthcare and to make prescription drugs available at lower costs.

Sarah Pitluck

SENIOR POLICY ADVISOR

Sarah Pitluck focuses on global healthcare access issues including pricing and reimbursement (P&R) strategy, public policy, market access, and patient advocacy for new biotechnology products. Most recently, she was Vice President and Head of Global Pricing & Reimbursement at Spark Therapeutics where she priced the first US Food and Drug Administration-approved gene therapy for a genetic disease, LUXTURNA® (voretigene neparvovec-rzyl). She also led the roll-out of Spark’s unique alternate payment options and outcomes-based arrangements for LUXTURNA while working across Spark’s entire product pipeline to develop policies and programs to help ensure timely patient access to future one-time gene therapies. Sarah’s previous roles include Executive Director for Global P&R at Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Director of Coverage & Reimbursement Policy at Genentech, and healthcare consulting roles at Washington, DC-based Avalere Health and Covance Health Economics and Outcomes Services Inc.

Claire McFadden

STAFF

Claire is a researcher focusing on the financial impact of congressional and federal actions on healthcare policy. She attends Georgetown University studying Healthcare Management & Policy and Economics. She will be graduating with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 2023.

Advisory Board

Julius Hobson

Advisor + Public Policy Expert

Julius W. Hobson, Jr., has more than 45 years’ experience in public policy, working both inside and outside of government. He has a deep-rooted understanding and compassion about the public policy process — both legislative and administrative. He primarily serves health care clients with particular emphasis on physicians, hospitals, home health, and long-term care providers.

Lisa Chimento 

Advisor +  CEO / Chair of the Board of Directors, 
Precise Telehealth, Former CEO, The Lewin Group

Lisa Chimento is an experienced health care executive and board member who brings more than 30 years of experience across the U.S. health care. Lisa is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Chair of the Board of Directors of Precise Telehealth, a chronic care management start-up that delivers customized chronic care management and remote patient monitoring for individuals with complex medical needs.

Lisa is the former Chief Executive Officer of The Lewin Group, Optum’s government consulting and analytics business, where she led more than 350 professionals in bringing innovative solutions to the most pressing health and health care issues facing government agencies today. Lisa also played multiple roles in Optum, serving as the inaugural Chief Product Officer of Optum Government, leading the market strategy, development and management of government products and solutions, including technology, BPaaS, data analytics, population health, wellness, and health care delivery solutions from across Optum. Lisa was also the lead executive for Optum’s state health exchange remediation work to resolve issues in the newly-established state insurance marketplaces in Maryland and Massachusetts.

John McCarthy

Advisor +  Corporate Law & Compliance Counsel

John F. McCarthy, III, is a senior corporate counselor and has practiced corporate law for over 35 years. John has extensive and diversified corporate finance experience in advising issuers, underwriters and indenture trustees in a broad range of public securities offerings and private placements of debt and equity. His practice includes structuring and documenting initial public offerings, venture capital transactions as well as the structuring and financing of start-up companies. He also has expertise with negotiating and structuring complex merger, acquisition and divestiture transactions, including public company mergers, strategic acquisitions and leveraged buy-out transactions.

Alan Pentz

Advisor +  CEO, Corner Alliance, Inc.

Alan Pentz is a successful leader with grant and other government programs with a mission to improve our 21st Century digital infrastructure in areas like homeland security, health, and rural communities. He has experience in developing and enabling programs like these to demonstrate their effectiveness and the positive impact they have on their mission areas.

David Deuchler

ADVISOR + Managing Director at Gilmartin Group

David Deuchler, CFA has over twenty years of capital markets experience as a public equity investor and corporate advisor focused in the Healthcare sector.

Prior to joining the Gilmartin Group, David was the Managing Partner of JAD Advisors, a corporate advisory firm focused on Investor Relations, Capital Markets and Business Strategy Advisory. Before starting JAD Advisors, David spent seventeen years on the buyside as portfolio manager and research analyst at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Moore Capital, Citadel Investment Group and Suvretta Capital.

David has extensive experience advising senior executives on investor relations strategy, capital markets, business strategy and capital allocation. During his time as an investor, David invested in companies across all sub sectors of the Healthcare universe and participated in more than 150 IPO and follow-on offerings. David received his BSBA with a concentration in Finance from the University of Richmond. David is a CFA Charterholder.

 

Contributors Emeritus

Capitol Street is extremely grateful for the dedication that all our past contributors have shown, many of whom have continued in Healthcare and Healthcare Analysis at outstanding organizations. We’re thrilled to have had a chance to work side-by-side and be part of their growth.

Collaborations

Our History

Starting in 2009, we were here to explain the impact of medical loss ratios (MLRs) when the Affordable Care Act was in the process of passing the Congress, as well as the 3 Rs and STAR bonuses in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. We were here to help decipher co-pay accumulator policies in tri-agency regulations, as well as quick take and deep dives of lengthy annual payment regulations, such as the inpatient hospital, home health, MA and Part D rules of the road.

Today, we are here to explain Election modeling impacts to future healthcare policy, Supply Chain & DIR reforms, Medicare drug negotiation secondary effects & innovation outlook, Post acute payment nuances, Patient-centered primary and accountable care pilots, Dialysis policy development, as well as Consumer-centric healthcare models and employer / commercial endeavors such as Amazon.