Jessica Hernandez
February 2025
Jessica
Hernandez
,
BSN, RN
Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Clinic
Ochsner Medical Center New Orleans
New Orleans
,
LA
United States

 

 

 

She truly went above and beyond to ensure the safety and improved quality of life through receiving this medication.
Jessica is a nurse navigator with Ochsner's pulmonary hypertension group. Earlier this year, Medicare/Medicaid changed how they reimburse for a specific pulmonary hypertension medication called Remodulin. This is a life-saving IV/SUBQ medication that decreases the patient's symptoms of shortness of breath, fatigue, and disease progression. The change greatly impacted the out-of-pocket cost of this medication, as well as being able to obtain the actual medication, and our patients were extremely worried that they would not be able to afford it any longer. Jessica took it upon herself to arrange a meeting with the top executive at the manufacturer (United Therapeutics) and executives at CVS Specialty. She was able to facilitate that conversation between the two parties and advocated on behalf of our PH population to ensure the continuity of their treatment. Through these discussions, it was found that Louisiana Medicaid had erroneously placed the medication under the wrong billing category. This finding led to Medicaid recategorizing this medication for the entire state of Louisiana, allowing for no disruption in patient treatment. She truly went above and beyond to ensure the safety and improved quality of life through receiving this medication.