Laura Kimmey

Laura Kimmey’s work focuses on the use, cost, and quality of health care, particularly among frail elders and beneficiaries dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid.

Kimmey serves as deputy project director and oversees an impact analysis for the evaluation of the Independence at Home Demonstration. The evaluation tests whether a shared savings incentive for home-based primary care practices improves outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions and substantial functional limitations. Kimmey leads the evaluation of the impact of one site for Mathematica’s Evaluation of the Health Care Innovation Awards Round 2. She is using quasi-experimental methods to evaluate a community-based palliative care program treating Medicare beneficiaries with life-limiting illnesses. The overall evaluation focuses on a range of health care delivery and payment reforms that aim to achieve better quality of care, improve population health, and lower costs through improvement of the care delivery processes for Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries.

Kimmey has provided technical assistance to states and health plans on how to reduce avoidable admissions for people dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid who reside in nursing facilities. In addition, she has studied the relationship between process and outcome measures for heart failure and the extent to which these relationships are mediated by other factors.

Before joining Mathematica, Kimmey conducted research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Georgia, and Miami University. Kimmey holds a Ph.D. in health policy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.