Leslie Foster

Leslie Foster conducts quantitative and qualitative program evaluations to measure outcomes, estimate impacts, describe implementation, and identify best practices for U.S. government agencies and private foundations. Her current research focuses on access to and quality of care in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).

Foster also studies the role of technology in promoting the provision of high-quality clinical care, and in increasing consumers’ access to insurance coverage, medical care, and health information. She has substantial experience evaluating programs designed to improve or maintain the health, well-being, and independence of frail elders and children and adults with disabilities.

Foster is deputy project director of the National Evaluation of the CHIP Reauthorization Act Quality Demonstration Grant Program, in which 18 states are using quality measurement and reporting, health information technology, and provider-based delivery models to improve children’s care quality in Medicaid and CHIP. She is also directing a descriptive study of the first year of California’s online application for Medicaid and CHIP. Among other information, the study will provide lessons about the modernization of enrollment systems as called for in the Affordable Care Act. Foster has played key roles in Mathematica’s Evaluation of Three Cash and Counseling Demonstrations; the Evaluation of the Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly; the Study to Identify Best Practices in Enrolling Low-Income Beneficiaries Into Medicare Part D; and the Evaluation of the Informatics, Telemedicine and Education Demonstration.

Foster joined Mathematica in 1999 and has published in Health Affairs, Health Services Research, and the Gerontologist. She holds an M.P.A. in public policy from New York University.