Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2024 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
Cindy Smith has perhaps one of the greatest skills needed for long-term care: the knowledge and experience to reduce the time needed to obtain a prior authorization.
The director of professional services for Omnicare, Smith originally was recruited by the company to enhance relationships with service providers. She eventually transitioned to professional services, where she is responsible for adjudication, intake and clinical intervention centers.
With more than 30 years of experience, she has a deep understanding of collaborative practice agreements and the prior authorization process, in which she has made significant improvements. Customers are now able to fill prescriptions and have them delivered more quickly, and Smith has reduced the turnaround time by about 90% through collaborative practice agreements. Overall, Smith has reduced the median turnaround time by more than a week.
Based in Northern California, she leads a national team that works on matters that affect all of Omnicare’s almost 8,000 customers, such as medication availability, staffing shortages and reimbursement pressure that were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Through it all, Smith has led with her characteristic calm and positive approach to ensure that patients get the right medications when they need them. She formerly worked for PharMerica and Pharmacy Support Services, a subsidiary of Covenant Care, and reorganized two challenged business units to regain and maintain profitability.
- Smith holds a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
- She earned a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of California, San Francisco.
- Smith completed her residency at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA, and started her career as a clinical pharmacist at Matria Healthcare.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 21 at a dinner and awards ceremony in Chicago. Omnicare was the Silver sponsor for the 2024 Pinnacle Awards program. Parker Health Group and Sentrics were event sponsors.
