Allison Wishon

Allison Wishon’s research focuses on improving the delivery, financing, and quality of health care for people with behavioral health conditions and disabilities. Much of her work involves evaluating federal and state strategies to expand access to and coordination of Medicaid behavioral health services.

A central focus of Wishon’s current portfolio is evaluating the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) model. She directs the federal evaluation of the Section 223 CCBHC Demonstration for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and has led or contributed to multiple projects and studies examining CCBHC implementation and impacts within and across states. Wishon also serves as a subject matter expert across many of Mathematica’s behavioral health projects and clients; for example, she provides support to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Section 1115 demonstrations for individuals with serious mental illness and serious emotional disturbance. She also has led or advised projects on financing and delivery of behavioral health crisis services, mental health and substance use workforce capacity and insurance network adequacy, and Medicaid managed care regulations related to institutions for mental diseases. Earlier in her career, Wishon contributed to federal evaluations of programs including the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration’s Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration program and CMS’s Medicaid Emergency Psychiatric Demonstration.

Wishon’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Psychiatric Services and the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, and she has coauthored numerous federal reports and issue briefs. Before joining Mathematica in 2013, she worked at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, where she analyzed and researched policy, provided technical assistance, and represented the interests of those with serious mental illnesses. She holds an MHS from the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.