Julia Baller

Julia Baller’s work focuses on using data to support Medicaid program implementation and improvement, particularly for populations with behavioral health conditions. She has expertise in using Medicaid administrative data and Federal Marketplace Data for data analytics and policy evaluations.

Baller is currently leading work that supports the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) and the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight efforts to unwind from the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. This work involves tracking health insurance coverage transitions among consumers who lose Medicaid or CHIP coverage and supporting outreach to beneficiaries losing coverage. It relies on Medicaid, Medicare, Federally-Facilitated Marketplace, and commercial health insurance data. Prior to this work, Baller led work supporting CMCS’s monitoring of COVID-19 and its impact on the Medicaid program and its beneficiaries.

Besides her data analytics work, Baller also has experience using Medicaid administrative data to implement quality measures and evaluate programs. She directed a project that is tested the feasibility of implementing quality measures within Certified Community Behavioral Health Center expansion grantees in multiple states. She also led an impact evaluation of states that run Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment programs authorized via 1115 waivers, and she advised CMS on evaluation and monitoring plans for these states.

Baller’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including BMC Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, Schizophrenia Bulletin, and Autism. She holds a Ph.D. in health services research and policy from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.