I am an applied health services researcher with expertise in health insurance, access to care, and Medicaid policy. I am currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health where I co-direct the BU Medicaid Policy Lab. Broadly, I am interested in understanding how to improve continuity and quality of health insurance coverage and access to care in the fragmented U.S. health system, specifically among enrollees in the Medicaid program and Affordable Care Act Marketplace plans. My work applies econometric and causal inference-based methods to assess the impacts of state-level health care policies primarily using survey data and administrative claims data, including national Medicaid claims data and All Payer Claims Databases (APCDs). My work has been funded by the Commonwealth Fund, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and National Institutes of Health. I also teach graduate level public health courses in health policy and health care delivery, and in 2021 was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award for an Outstanding New Instructor by the Boston University School of Public Health.
My recent area of focus has been the intersections of Medicaid policy and maternal health. I am Principal Investigator of a four year mixed-methods K01 Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health studying the effects of postpartum Medicaid policies on maternal mental health care. I am a faculty advisor of the Medicaid Data Learning Network, a national consortium of Medicaid data users, and facilitate the Medicaid Insights Colloquium lecture series. I received the Outstanding Dissertation Award from AcademyHealth in 2020 and the Excellence in Research Early Career Award from the Boston University School of Public Health in 2024. My work has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, and PBS, among other outlets. I received my doctorate in Health Services Research (health economics) from the Brown University School of Public Health and an MS in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health.
I currently serve as a senior advisor on health policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in the Biden-Harris Administration (2021- present).
Contact
gordonsh@bu.edu
Sarah H. Gordon, PhD 