The recently formed National Association of Medicaid Directors announced today the addition of two top-level staff members.
Kathleen Nolan will join as the director of state policy and programs and Andrea Maresca will join as the director of federal policy and strategy. Nolan was previously at the National Governors Association for seven years providing health-related policy advice. Maresca has seven years of Medicaid experience, including with the National Association of State Medicaid Directors, the predecessor of NAMD.
Andrew Allison, executive director of the Kansas Health Policy Authority, is the founding president of NAMD’s 10-member board (PDF). The health policy authority is being merged with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and will become a division of KDHE. The merger is scheduled to be complete July 1.
The new Medicaid directors’ group split off from its 31-year-old predecessor NASMD last August in order to be a more efficient, fast-acting group, said Executive Director Matt Salo said in a letter on the group’s website.
“The decision to break away from the larger group and self-incorporate as a separate 501(c) (3) entity was done with the primary goal of creating a more powerful, effective organization to better serve Medicaid Directors. This is especially critical as states struggle through difficult budgetary times, and prepare for the implementation of the Affordable Care Act,” Salo wrote.
Salo said the group’s focus will be policy development, federal advocacy and technical assistance to the 56 Medicaid programs in states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
“Medicaid is so large and complex that no one can master every aspect of it, and even veteran directors will be challenged by the multitude of reforms anticipated in the Affordable Care Act. Helping each of you become more efficient and effective in your roles is my goal, and there are many ways of working towards that. These range from timely analysis of federal developments, to member-to-member networking and knowledge development, to issue briefs highlighting promising practices and lessons learned,” Halo wrote.