Karen Ravitz

Karen Ravitz serves as the Health Policy Advisor for the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders. Karen provides legislative and regulatory strategies for the Alliance and is responsible for establishing policy positions, writing comments and managing the numerous work groups within the Alliance. Karen is an attorney who has been involved in health care issues for over 30 years. Before becoming a consultant for the Alliance, she was the Associate Director of the Government Affairs Department at the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). During her time at APTA, Karen was instrumental in obtaining coverage for the use of electrical stimulation for the treatment of wounds.

Earlier in her career, Ms. Ravitz was the Director of Government Affairs for the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (now the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel) as well as at ASCO Healthcare (now Genesis Health Ventures). She also worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant. Ms. Ravitz has an extensive background on wound care issues as well as durable medical equipment and has published several articles related to the coverage of wound care supplies and enteral nutrition. She also has spoken at several conferences, including MEDTRADE, SAWC, and DLS on Medicare reimbursement and durable medical equipment related issues. Ms. Ravitz was an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation where she taught a course on Healthcare Law and Ethics. Karen earned her law degree from the University of Baltimore and undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles

Marcia Nusgart, RPh, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders ("Alliance") a non-profit multidisciplinary association for physician specialty societies, clinical and patient organizations whose members treat or are patients with wounds. It addresses regulatory and legislative issues impacting wound care. As CEO of the Alliance, she is viewed as a highly visible, respected and credible source of information for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and their contractors and FDA as she advocates for appropriate public policy processes.

Importantly, she created and successfully implemented in May 2022 its “Wound Care Evidence Summit™” which addressed “How much and what type of evidence to do payers need to cover wound care products and procedures?” She co-authored these articles: "Payers’ Perspectives on Wound Care Coverage Policy Determination (Wounds 2025) "Outcomes of the Wound Care Evidence Summit“ (Journal of Wound Care 2024) "Chronic Wound Prevalence and the Associated Cost of Treatment in Medicare Beneficiaries: Changes between 2014 and 2019” (Journal Medical Economics 2023) . She has also submitted wound care quality measures to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and tackles issues relating to coverage, coding and payment for wound care procedures and products.

She has received numerous honors ranging from the 2011 Distinguished Alumni award by The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy to the AAWC Leadership Award to the designation of Master from APWCA. She serves on numerous boards and holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from The Ohio State University.