Career Summary – Jim Long, Co-founder and Principal
Over the past twenty years, Jim Long has held a senior management level position in three health care industries including pharmaceutical, home health care, specialty pharmacy distribution and services, for companies ranging in size from start ups, to those in the Fortune 75.
Prior to co - founding BioSolutia, Mr. Long most recently served as Vice President, Specialty Pharmacy for Caremark, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit management and specialty pharmacy services companies. He also served as Vice President, Specialty Pharmacy, for AdvancePCS prior to its acquisition by Caremark.
Prior to that time, Mr. Long served as President, American Medical Distributors (Bellco Health), a national specialty distribution and pharmacy services company. Before joining AMD, he was Vice President, Specialty Pharmacy, for Chronimed (now MIM BioScrip) where he had full P & L responsibility for the specialty pharmacy division. Prior to that, as Vice President, Sales, for Olsten Health Services (now Gentiva Health Services, the nation’s largest home health services company) where Mr. Long ran a 200 person sales, national account and contracting group accountable for $1.6 billion in revenue. Before being involved in home health services and specialty pharmacy, Mr. Long spent several years with a major pharmaceutical company in sales management positions of steadily increasing responsibility.
Accordingly, he is considered one of the few nationally recognized experts on specialty pharmaceutical channel development, distribution and specialty services, particularly for narrow niche biotechnology and biological specialty medications.
Mr. Long earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology / Premedical Studies and graduated Cum Laude from Villanova University, in Villanova, Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the National Pre - Medical Honor Society, Alpha Epsilon Delta. He also attended medical school at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, of the University of Genoa, Italy.
Mr. Long is based in the Raleigh, North Carolina office of BioSolutia.
Career Summary – Dan Desmarais, Co-founder and Principal
Dan Desmarais is a highly regarded managed care innovator and strategist with over twenty-five years of experience in the field. His experience includes a broad range of positions and assignments in health care settings ranging from start-up health plans to nationally recognized, regional healthcare organizations to publicly traded physician practice management and medical services networks, to Fortune 75 Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) and Specialty Pharmacy companies.
Mr. Desmarais began his healthcare career in managed care pharmacy, managing one of New England’s largest staff-model ambulatory care pharmacies. He served as Chairman and participant in Pharmacy and Therapeutics (P&T) committees at two noted health plans and led pharmacy innovation efforts in some of the first HMO Medicare risk contracts in the nation.
Subsequently, he turned his sights to health plan management, eventually becoming a senior executive in one of the premier HMOs in the country. In addition to his direct senior management role, Mr. Desmarais chaired the plan's Finance Committee and helped lead its overall medical cost containment strategies. Mr. Desmarais then served as a senior executive in the nation’s largest single specialty physician practice management company focusing on high-technology reproductive services (IVF). In this role, Mr. Desmarais drove marketplace innovation and consolidation, setting new records for clinical results, growth, and patient satisfaction.
Before co -founding BioSolutia, Mr. Desmarais was an equity partner at TheraCom, a noted specialty pharmacy and biotech service company, where he spent five years leading the company’s managed care market strategy and contracting efforts. Under his direction, the company’s managed care relationships help fuel its aggressive growth and ultimate acquisition by AdvancePCS, a Fortune 75 PBM, which was in turn acquired by Caremark. At Caremark, Mr. Desmarais served as Vice President, Strategic Accounts.
Mr. Desmarais is a Registered Pharmacist, having graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy in Boston. He also earned a Masters in Public Health from Boston University School of Medicine.
Mr. Desmarais is based in the Boston, Massachusetts office of BioSolutia.
Career Summary – Anne Schmersal, Director, Reimbursement and Support Services
With over twenty years experience in various pharmacy settings including over ten years in assorted unique, national specialty pharmacy programs, Anne Schmersal has established herself as one of the leading experts in day-to-day specialty pharmacy and call center reimbursement operations.
Ms. Schmersal began her experiences in pharmacy as a Training Officer in the US Army Pharmacy Technician Program. Afterwards she spent several years in various infusion pharmacies then moving to a New York City teaching hospital managing clinical trial programs in Oncology, HIV and Cardiac Surgery as well as managing the Tumor Registry at the hospital.
She then spent the next ten years in one of the nation’s premier specialty pharmacies, Priority Healthcare, continuing with the organization when it was subsequently acquired by CuraScript. During that time, Ms. Schmersal was intimately involved in numerous general specialty pharmacy and disease-specific programs including Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, Hepatitis and Hemophilia as well as playing key operations roles in joint-venture start-ups such as Advance PCS SpecialtyRx, Wal-Mart Specialty and Aetna SpecialtyRx. Subsequently, she managed day-to-day operations of several manufacturer-sponsored reimbursement call centers building highly skilled, service oriented teams capable of delivering superior reimbursement strategies and outcomes. Ms. Schmersal has also been intimately involved in specialty pharmacy and call center software development and implementation across a variety of settings.
Ms. Schmersal earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and graduated Cum Laude from Syracuse University.
Ms. Schmersal is based in the Orlando, Florida office of BioSolutia.
Career Summary – Jessica Torres, Associate Director, Reimbursement Services
Jessica Torres has over 10 years of solid specialty pharmacy expertise and a demonstrated successful track record while working for CuraScript, a national specialty pharmacy located in Orlando, Florida, a division of Express Scripts, Inc. , a national pharmacy benefit management company. During her tenure, Ms. Torres assumed various management positions, each with steadily increasing responsibility and was involved in developing, syndicating, and implementing operational strategies for various specialty pharmaceutical programs , as well as improving performance and cross-functionality through data leveraging and forecasting.
Over the past 5 years, as Manager, she successfully led company strategic efforts to increase efficiency and accuracy in reimbursement risk mitigation, and managed a broad scope of key operational activities including strategy formulation, performance metric development, technique implementation, and policy and procedure development. Ms. Torres was responsible for organizational infrastructure support, staff development, and retention while focusing on consistently delivering quality customer service vital to sustaining and growing accounts. She successfully collaborated with management on operational analysis, team efficiency, and process enhancements and actively supported company in launching new products and expanding revenue streams by strategically developing innovative new product implementation processes.
Prior to that, as Supervisor, she effectively developed and directed staff and actively collaborated in Human Resource reimbursement operation functions such as evaluating performance, ensuring project completion, adhering department processes, and providing guidance/mentoring.
Ms. Torres started her career by assuming the position of Team Leader and subsequently as Senior Managed Care Coordinator, consistently serving as team point person, collaborating with sales teams, providing field visits to top pharmaceutical client customers and performing insurance benefit verification functions for disease-specific specialty pharmaceutical programs. She effectively identified and capitalized on opportunities to penetrate and develop new clientele markets.
Ms. Torres is currently pursuing her Bachelors of Business Administration at the University of Phoenix, in Orlando, FL.
Ms. Torres is based in the Orlando, Florida offices of BioSolutia.