Megan Thomas
Megan Thomas
Managing Principal, Medicaid Quality Initiatives
Megan Thomas, MPP, has more than 20 years of health policy experience, with a focus on quality-of-care issues in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). She leverages her expertise in data, quality measurement, and performance improvement to support state delivery system reform efforts, assist in the design and implementation of Medicaid section 1115 waivers, and support improving the collection, reporting, analysis, and dissemination of data.
Before joining Aurrera Health, Megan was a Technical Director at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), leading work on Medicaid and CHIP quality measurement and advising on Medicaid programmatic issues, including the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment benefit and the national Medicaid and CHIP oral health strategy. She also helped launch the first nationwide adult Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems survey and supported Affordable Care Act initiatives to strengthen federal data collection. Previously, she was a Policy Analyst at the KFF, focusing on health care quality and access. She has served on the board of the National Alliance to Advance Adolescent Health since 2019 and was elected to the National Academy of Social Insurance in 2025.
A California native, Megan currently resides in Washington, DC where she enjoys boxing, hiking, traveling, and watching her favorite “so-bad-they’re-good” movies.
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Education
Master of Public Policy, Georgetown University
Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, Stanford University
By Trish Violett, Junior Policy Consultant and Megan Thomas, Director, Quality Initiatives
Over the past four years, the 52 hospitals and health systems participating in the California Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) program have been working to improve care delivery and maximize health care value through a “pay-for-performance” model. The PRIME hospitals are using evidence-based quality improvement methods to achieve designated goals and outcomes on select clinical projects and associated performance metrics.
By Lilly Clements, Junior Policy Consultant and Megan Thomas, Associate Director
Since 2014, the Cal MediConnect (CMC) program has coordinated care for some of the most vulnerable Californians. CMC was developed by the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to better serve dual eligible beneficiaries – those enrolled in both Medicare and Medi-Cal (Medicaid in California).
A primary focus of CMC is to better coordinate behavioral health care service delivery for members. This week, DHCS released a report entitled “Improving Behavioral Health Integration and Coordination for Cal MediConnect (CMC) Members,” which details the complexities and nuances of CMC plans’ efforts to integrate behavioral health into the care delivery system for dual eligible beneficiaries.
