Wilfong Joins Navista as Chief Medical Officer: “We Really Want to Partner With Practices”

Lalan Wilfong, MD, one of the best-known leaders in value-based community oncology, has joined Navista, Cardinal Health’s oncology practice alliance, as its chief medical officer. It’s the latest move that signals Cardinal’s seriousness in competing with rivals to work directly with physicians in cancer care.

As chief medical officer, Wilfong “will aid development and adoption of evidence‑based pathways, advance value‑based care initiatives, and assist practices in bringing advanced therapies to the community setting amid a rapidly evolving therapeutic landscape,” according to a statement from Navista.¹

It’s the highest-profile announcement to date for Navista General Manager Diana Verrilli, who arrived in September 2025 to jump-start Cardinal Health’s effort to transform a onetime technology franchise into a physician-focused cancer care platform.²

“Dr Wilfong is an exceptional clinical leader whose deep oncology experience will strengthen our mission to support community oncology practices to deliver personalized, patient-centered cancer care, close to home,” Verrilli said in a statement from Navista. “His leadership will help ensure our clinical offerings remain aligned with real-world evidence, while further integrating Cardinal Health’s oncology platform that puts the community physician at the center of everything we do.”

Wilfong became well known for his work in practice transformation during his years at Texas Oncology, where he served in a series of leadership positions for both the practice and for The US Oncology Network. He played an important role as The Network’s member practices navigated the Oncology Care Model (OCM), which ran from 2016 to 2022, and later the Enhancing Oncology Model, which launched in 2023. Wilfong has been an author on more than 20 scholarly papers on aspects of OCM, value-based care, and value-based payment.

More recently, Wilfong served as senior vice president for value-based care at Thyme Care, which works with both payers and physicians to manage complex care, reduce drug waste, and facilitate palliative care, among other services. In this role, Wilfong managed oncology practice partnerships and contracting strategies while starting programs to improve patient outcomes, according to Navista. Wilfong will retain an advisory role with Thyme Care.

In an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^®(AJMC^®), Wilfong said his move to Navista was driven by a desire to work directly with physicians and by familiarity with members of the Cardinal team.

“It’s a very collaborative environment,” he said. “It’s a very small organization right now in the oncology division, but being able to create something more or less from scratch is really exciting to me, as well as just being able to support the work they’re doing already.”

The new role allows Wilfong to build on both prior work and more than 25 years of experience in medical oncology. “From a clinical standpoint, I’m really passionate about the quality of care that patients are provided,” which he said includes aligning treatment with patients’ goals and values, delivering first-in-class, evidence-based medicine, and offering patients access to advanced therapeutics in the community setting.

A “Crazy Time” to Be in Oncology

Delivering complex therapeutics in outpatient settings is just one of the many challenging priorities in cancer care, as more bispecific antibodies are expected to be approved for these uses, and in earlier lines of care. Over the past year, discussions at cancer meetings, large and small, have addressed the need for community practices to take over most inpatient administration of bispecific therapies. This will bring large savings and in many cases eliminate the problem of drugs not being on hospital formularies.

This is where Wilfong’s work in practice transformation will be crucial. “It highlights that as you get experience with these drugs in learning how to manage them, that you can do this [outpatient,]” he said. “Now, that’s going to require…a lot of change in the practices. You can’t give these drugs, then have somebody go home and call the clinic and get stuck in a 30-minute voicemail leaving messages. You just can’t do that when you have potential [adverse] effects, and they must be acted on quickly.

“There are a lot of operational challenges with practices, but we’ll get there. That’s one of the things I’m excited about: How do we get our practices to where we can give these drugs and have patients taken care of completely as an outpatient? Because that will open up access.”

Providing access is critical, Wilfong said. In multiple myeloma, for example, there are regimens, such as the teclistamab (Tecvayli; Johnson & Johnson) and daratumumab (Darzalex; Johnson & Johnson) combination,³ that now offer a 1-year survival rate of 80% for a disease that was uniformly fatal. “That’s a big deal,” he said. “We’re going to see more and more of these coming in that are showing pretty significant improvements in outcomes. We’ve got to be able to give them.”

“It’s a fun but crazy time to be in oncology, and it has been for a few years,” Wilfong told AJMC. “The reimbursement dynamics are changing,” with practices facing new regulatory and financial pressures almost daily. There have been promises of fewer burdens from prior authorization, but those effects aren’t being felt just yet, he said. At the same time, practices face shortages of oncologists and other ongoing staffing issues, as well as opportunities and challenges from new technology.

His role will be to work with practices to figure out “how that impacts our practices in oncology in general,” and to “make sure the patients continue to have access to high quality care, and the practices are financially reimbursed appropriately for the work they’re doing.”

A Big Move for a Smaller Player

Wilfong’s transition reconnects him with Verrilli, who spent 23 years with McKesson, including later roles in strategy and practice solutions and payer and provider support. McKesson, which supports The US Oncology Network, is better known as one of the nation’s top 3 drug wholesalers (McKesson, Cencora, and Cardinal Health control 90% of the US market).⁴

Since joining Navista, Verrilli has overhauled a team that was working to catch up with more established managed services organizations (MSOs) in oncology, which grew rapidly following passage of 2015 legislation to promote a shift from volume-based to value-based care. From the start, CMS targeted oncology for reform, and practices sought guidance on how to invest in technology and data analytics to comply with new mandates.

McKesson purchased The Network in 2010 and has since grown it into the nation’s largest oncology MSO, with more than 700 practice sites.⁵ Large practices include Texas Oncology and Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute, which joined in 2024 after initially starting an MSO in 2018. That entity, American Oncology Network, later spun off on its own and now serves 110 practice sites.⁶

In April 2023, Cencora (previously AmerisourceBergen) acquired a 35% stake in OneOncology, which had grown since its 2018 founding to become the second largest oncology MSO. (In February 2026, Cencora closed on its purchase of OneOncology,⁷ which now has 420 practice sites.)

That left Cardinal alone among the top 3 wholesalers without a direct relationship with an oncology physician network. Then, in September 2024, Navista Tech Solutions, created in 2021 to offer artificial intelligence (AI)–based tools for oncology practices, gained a new mission when Cardinal acquired the Integrated Oncology Network for $1.1 billion.^6,8 Navista’s statement today said the alliance currently serves 50 practice sites delivering multidisciplinary oncology and urology care.

Wilfong will be a “a key connection point” across Cardinal Health’s oncology-focused portfolio, including its Specialty Networks Solutions and Advanced Therapies Solutions businesses, the company said. His arrival will generate attention as Navista seeks to differentiate itself from competitors; while Wilfong said growth is definitely the goal, the small size will be a selling point for some practices.

Asked what will distinguish Navista from larger rivals, he said: “It’s a different philosophy. We really want to partner with practices,” while acknowledging, “that term has been used a lot.”

“How do we partner with them to enable them to continue to provide high quality care and give them the resources to do better in the future?” Wilfong asked. “Since we’re small, we can be nimble and do things more quickly. When I say partnering, it’s not just partnering with the practices, but how do we partner with the other people in the ecosystem?”

On this point, Wilfong said Navista’s size will allow it to move quickly to work with other companies that are solving problems in cancer care. “My hope is that the practices don’t feel like they’re ever being ignored or sidelined by something else, that we will be able to give them more personalized attention and help them meet their needs.

“One of the things I’ve always been passionate about is that everybody has a voice at the table,” he continued. “I don’t live in your shoes. I don’t know exactly what you do all day long. My job is to listen to you and then help figure out what the right strategy is for the organization.”

References

1. Navista welcomes Lalan Wilfong, MD, as chief medical officer. News release. Navista. April 13, 2026. Accessed April 13, 2026. https://www.navista.com/news-and-insights/navista-welcomes-lalan-wilfong-md-as-chief-medical-officer.html
2. Navista names Diana Verrilli as general manager. News release. Navista. September 12, 2024. Accessed April 13, 2026. https://www.navista.com/news-and-insights/navista-names-diana-verilli-as-general-manager.html
3. Costa LJ, Bahlis NJ, Perrot A, et al; MajesTEC-3 Trial Investigators. Teclistamab plus daratumumab in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. N Engl J Med. 2026;394(8):739-752. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa2514663
4. US drug wholesalers: How McKesson, Cencora and Cardinal Control 90%+ of distribution. Intuition Labs. March 12, 2026. Accessed April 13, 2026 https://intuitionlabs.ai/articles/drug-wholesaler-market-concentration
5. McKesson acquires US Oncology Services for $2.16 billion. S&P Global. November 2, 2010. Accessed April 13, 2026. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/mi/country-industry-forecasting.html?id=106593655
6. Caffrey M. Beyond McKesson and Florida Cancer Specialists, deals are reshaping community oncology. Am J Manag Care. 2024;30(Spec. No. 11):SP870-SP873. doi:10.37765/ajmc.2024.89692
7. Caffrey M. As Cencora closes with OneOncology, Patton says terms show “trust.” AJMC. February 5, 2026. Accessed April 13, 2026. https://www.ajmc.com/view/as-cencora-closes-with-oneoncology-patton-says-terms-show-trust-
8. Cardinal Health completes acquisition of ION. News release. Cardinal Health. December 3, 2024. Accessed April 13, 2026. https://newsroom.cardinalhealth.com/2024-12-03-Cardinal-Health-completes-acquisition-of-Integrated-Oncology-Network