VENTEGRA ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF VENTEGRA FOUNDATION, APPOINTMENT OF CHIEF CONTRACTING OFFICER MARIANA RITCHIE, MPH, CPHT, AND 'FAIR' COMPENSATION POLICY
Ventegra Foundation's compensation policy enforces a salary cap for C-suite officers and high earners, seeking to ensure equitable pay practices
GLENDALE, CA – Ventegra, a Medical Benefit Manager (MBM) that delivers innovative, cost-efficient pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions to payors, providers, and eligible individuals, today announced the formal launch of Ventegra Foundation, a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation.
The Foundation is governed and controlled solely by its Board of Directors. The majority of the Board's Directorships is comprised of independent members who have significant experience within a community to be served by the Foundation, including experience in employment or service to nonprofit organizations that provide health, educational, or charitable services.
The Foundation's officers are President/CEO Robert T. Taketomo, Pharm.D., MBA, and Chief Contracting Officer (CCO) Mariana Ritchie, MPH, CPhT. Ritchie will also serve as Treasurer and Secretary for Ventegra Foundation.
The formal launch of the Foundation jumpstarts a multi-year process to migrate the MBM business operations of Ventegra, Inc. to the Foundation. During this process, Ventegra, Inc. will offer services to support a smooth and orderly migration that minimizes any disruption to the MBM business' stakeholders.
Robert T. Taketomo, Pharm.D., MBA, President/CEO, says, "The core purpose of this migration is to ensure the continuity and sustainability of Ventegra's business model within a nonprofit vehicle to better serve our community of clients, employees, and other stakeholders that have underpinned Ventegra's success over the past 20 years."
Ventegra, Inc. is the only B-Lab Certified California Benefit Corporation administering both pharmacy and medical benefit programs, and it does so on a pass-through basis, and in a transparent manner.
Ventegra, Inc. also remains one of the few independent pharmacy benefit entities in the market that directly contracts with manufacturers and passes on such discounts directly to clients in a transparent manner.
Explains Dr. Taketomo, "With the formal launch of Ventegra Foundation and the appointment of Mariana Ritchie as an officer of the Foundation in the role of Chief Contracting Officer (CCO), we have taken a key step to ensure the continuity of the Ventegra business model well into the future. We are pleased to have initiated this process after many months of careful planning and preparation."
He adds, "Going forward, the Foundation's compensation policy for employees will be a keen differentiator for us in the marketplace."
Dr. Taketomo explains that the Foundation has committed to strive for fair and equitable compensation for all employees through its comprehensive compensation policy, which includes:
Limiting the annual salary of the highest-paid employee (which may or may not be the Executive Director/CEO), including any bonuses or other direct monetary incentives to 25 times the annual salary equivalent, including bonuses or other direct monetary incentives, of the lowest-paid employee, consultant or contracted individual.
Covered employees shall be offered the same retirement, life and disability, health insurance, vision and dental insurance benefits as all other full-time employees of the organization.
Covered employees shall not receive a pay increase in any given year if less than 60 percent of employees are not receiving a pay increase that year.
Mariana Ritchie, MPH, CPhT, Chief Contracting Officer, says, "The compensation policy for Ventegra Foundation has been crafted in such a way as to help ensure a fair and equitable wage for all who work at Ventegra."
Further clarifying this policy, Ritchie explains, "Inequality of wages is a serious challenge for our society today. With national executive salaries for many major corporations exceeding 400-600 times that of their workers, Ventegra Foundation is committed to implementing a compensation policy that provides an incentive to continuously increase the wages of all our employees."
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About Ventegra, Inc.
Ventegra, Inc., founded in 2004, has evolved its mission as the prototypical Medical Benefit Manager (MBM) that delivers innovative, cost-efficient pharmaceutical and healthcare solutions to payors, providers, and eligible individuals. A complex transition process has begun, and over time, Ventegra, Inc.'s mission will be fully assumed by the nonprofit Ventegra Foundation.www.ventegra.org
About Ventegra Foundation
Ventegra Foundation is a California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation. Its mission is to establish new channels for delivering better efficiencies and more cost-effective healthcare for the community that is served. www.ventegra.org
Our drug list and formularies are designed to provide our clients with a choice of pharmacy products that meet all of the essential clinical conditions while addressing economic needs, and providing quality of care, affordability and choice.
Ventegra was founded to create balance between profitability and affordable patient care in an industry burdened by misplaced priorities. Our team applies our core values of integrity and transparency to create new healthcare delivery channels that are more consolidated and efficient. We channel our resources to positively impact the lives of others and create value for society as a whole.
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HIPAA Compliance Policy
Ventegra has adopted a General HIPAA Compliance Policy in order to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”), as amended by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (“HITECH”) Act of 2009 (Title XIII of division A and Title IV of division B of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act “ARRA”) and the HIPAA Omnibus Final Rule (Effective Date: March 26, 2013). We acknowledge that full compliance with the HIPAA Final Rule is required by or before September 23, 2013.
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Effective Date: March 1, 2021
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If you feel that we are not abiding by this privacy policy, you should contact us immediately via telephone at 858-551-8111 or privacyandsecurity@ventegra.org.
Fraud, Waste & Abuse
Part of our efforts to improve the healthcare system, Ventegra is committed to detecting, preventing and correcting fraud, waste and abuse.
What are Fraud, Waste, and Abuse?
FRAUD is generally defined as knowingly and willfully executing, or attempting to execute, a scheme or artifice to defraud any health care benefit program or to obtain (by means of false or fraudulent pretenses representations, or promises) any of the money or property owned by, or under the custody or control of, any health care benefit program. (18 U.S.C. § 1347)
WASTE is overutilization of services or other practices that, directly or indirectly, result in unnecessary costs to the health care system, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs. It is not generally considered to be caused by criminally negligent actions, but by the misuse of resources.
ABUSE includes any action(s) that may, directly or indirectly, result in one or more of the following:
Unnecessary costs to the health care system, including the Medicare and Medicaid programs
Improper payment for services
Payment for services that fail to meet professionally recognized standards of care
Services that are medically unnecessary
Abuse involves payment for items or services when there is no legal entitlement to that payment.
How to Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
If you suspect fraud, waste, or abuse in the healthcare system, please report it. To report suspected fraud, waste, or abuse, you can contact Ventegra:
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