Graduate Institute Alumni Spotlight: Michelle Nguyen, BS

Interviewers and Story by: Benjamin Eidman, David Pittman, and Khue Vo

Michelle Nguyen was part of the 2023 HBHI Graduate Institute cohort. Ms. Nguyen is in her second year of the Health Policy MSPH program at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and will graduate this May. She currently works for Mathematica as a Medicaid Policy Advisory Services Analyst.

Q: You had some significant experience working for the Oregon Health Authority before starting your Master’s degree. How has that experience shaped your approach as a health policy professional and some of the issues that are important to you?

A: I was actually on the pre-med track and was pretty adamant about wanting to become a provider. After joining the Oregon Health Authority, I realized that the health care system changes I wanted to be a part of were on more of a macro-level, which steered me toward a career in health policy. Having the opportunity to work at the state level and see how the Medicaid program directly affects different communities was really impactful. It was powerful to hear community members’ personal stories on specific parts of the program that had been beneficial and where there were opportunities improvement. My experiences in this role not only shaped why I wanted to pursue this Master’s degree, but also the path I’d like to pursue long term. I’m very passionate about continuing to work on Medicaid related projects. Mathematica does a lot of Medicaid related work, so I was really excited to join the organization last year. It’s been really helpful to have the insight from my time with the Oregon Health Authority while I work on federal Medicaid policies with big state level impacts.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about the work you currently do at Mathematica?

A:  I’m currently working on the Medicaid unwinding. As part of the COVID public health emergency measures, states were required to keep all Medicaid beneficiaries continuously enrolled. With the public health emergency ending in 2023, states have been going through a process called unwinding, where they reevaluate their beneficiaries to determine if they still qualify for Medicaid. States have been submitting their unwinding data to us, which consists of disenrollments and renewals, including whether renewals have been ex parte or via paper forms. We’re also tracking call center data to get a sense of how many beneficiaries are calling in and how long they are waiting to speak with someone. A lot of my specific work has been within data analytics related to unwinding processes. I’ve been looking at how states have been disenrolling people, overall disenrollment rates, and how the unwinding has affected specific populations within state Medicaid programs. CMS, our client, is really focused on creating transparency with the unwinding process. Many of the products we produce for them are later posted to their website so the public can have a better sense of what’s been going on with the unwinding.

Q: Is there a specific challenge related to the business of health that you hope to help address in your career?

A: The rising costs of health care along with deductions in funding for important state programs like Medicaid. How do we find money to keep supporting Medicaid? It’s a program that the poorest communities rely on not only for health insurance, but also for other social needs like transportation. How do we pay for things like vans that take people to appointments or the pharmacy? How do we balance those benefits with needing to reimburse Medicaid providers at appropriate rates so they want to continue seeing Medicaid patients?  I’m a big advocate for trying to identify alternative funding sources so we can maintain and enhance these programs.

Q: What was your favorite part of being an HBHI Graduate Institute fellow?

A: All of the friendships I made with my Graduate Institute peers. I would have never met many of them under other circumstances. We’re all here because we want to better the health care system in some way—it’s  been interesting to learn about everyone else’s interests, especially people who were not in the same degree program as me. I’m still in touch with many of my Graduate Institute peers and have even gone on to collaborate with some of them on other projects.

The mentorship aspect of the fellowship was also really impactful for me. I had the privilege of working with Dr. Kevin Frick and he has just been a wonderful pillar of support. He’s continued to serve as a mentor for me even after my time with the fellowship has ended.

Q: What do you like to do for fun outside of work?

A: I picked up cycling recently and have been enjoying that a lot; I’m also really into weight lifting. I have a goal to read 24 books this year, which has been a great excuse to finally read Dune. I’m really looking forward to having some more free time after school ends to explore more art and get back into to scrapbooking.