Marlena Luhr

Marlena Luhr is a researcher who is motivated by the belief that all people deserve high quality healthcare. She has expertise in using Medicaid and Medicare administrative claims data and survey data for analytics and program evaluations.

Luhr contributes quantitative analysis to claims-based impact report to examine the effects of the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) model on Medicare expenditures, service use, and quality of care. CPC+ is a large mixed-methods evaluation that provides the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other participating payers, practices, and stakeholders with ongoing rapid-cycle feedback about the implementation and impacts of CPC+ to promote learning and ongoing improvements. She also uses the national Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Analytic Files to analyze data for the Centers for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Services. She has designed measures to monitor the impact of COVID-19 on the Medicaid program and to explore the quality and usability of Medicaid data for DQ Atlas.

Luhr has contributed research to landscape scans and literature reviews on a variety of health-related topics. She is also experienced in program evaluation, having contributed to the impact report for Way2Work Maryland, a project designed to improve the academic and career success of students with disabilities in Maryland through work-based learning experiences. Before joining Mathematica in 2019, Luhr held a staff economist position where she co-authored expert witness reports for tariff and dumping proceedings. She holds an M.S. in applied economics from Johns Hopkins and an M.Econ in international business economics from the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.