Kristina Hanson Lowell
Kristina has 30 years of evaluation and policy expertise in health-care delivery and payment reform, Medicare and Medicaid, chronic care, disability, and health IT. Kristina is a vice president and senior fellow in the Health Care Evaluation department at NORC. Kristina has directed numerous large-scale quantitative and qualitative studies on behalf of state and federal government agencies, not-for-profit and consumer organizations, academic researchers, foundations, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and professional associations. These mixed-methods studies have included quantitative analyses of secondary data such as Medicare and Medicaid claims and primary data collected through original surveys, focus groups, structured interviews, and site visits. Kristina has published research in peer-reviewed publications on innovative approaches to payment- and delivery-system reform such as accountable care organizations (ACOs), access to care, state variations in the coverage and delivery of mental-health and substance-abuse services, public attitudes concerning mental illness and substance abuse.
Among her ongoing projects at NORC, Kristina is the project director of the evaluations of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization (NGACO) Model and the ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) Model for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). She also serves as a senior advisor to the Vermont All-Payer ACO Model Evaluation and the Evaluation of Rhode Island’s Medicaid Section 1115 Waiver. In addition, she oversees the department’s human services evaluation work, which includes research for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Administration for Community Living (ACL); as well as its military and veterans health research portfolio, serving the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). Kristina also leads a number of internal cross-cutting initiatives focused on disability and behavioral health.
Prior to joining NORC, Kristina was a Research Director at the Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform at the Brookings Institution, where she managed the multi-stakeholder Accountable Care Organization Learning Network and the Long-Term Quality Alliance. Kristina was previously a senior analyst in the Office of Policy at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), where she managed the Office’s Medicare Part D portfolio and the launch of several on-line consumer resources. She served as a Part D liaison between the Office of the Administrator, other parts of the Agency and DHHS, Capitol Hill, and external organizations. Prior to CMS, Kristina was a senior research manager at Harris Interactive and a Senior Policy Analyst at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kristina has served as an Instructor at Harvard College, the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and the Harvard School of Public Health.
