Joy Rooney

As a researcher, Joy Rooney focuses on the quantitative analysis of a variety of Medicaid data sources, including the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Analytic Files.

Rooney currently supports the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ oversight of state-directed payments in Medicaid managed care by leading quarterly data analysis of payment arrangements. She also led analyses of Medicaid enrollees’ use of home and community-based services and behavioral health care during the COVID-19 pandemic for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. Previously, Rooney led Mathematica’s technical assistance support for 1115 demonstrations that address serious mental illness and serious emotional disturbance for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and states.

For nine years, Rooney worked as a chemical engineer mitigating air pollution from fossil-fuel power plants. She became more interested in the development of related policies and regulations and pivoted her career. Before joining Mathematica, Rooney also interned at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General, Office of Evaluation and Inspections, where she focused on data quality issues in the Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System and their impact on the analysis of opioid abuse.

She holds an M.P.P. from the University of Chicago and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Notre Dame.