Cara Stepanczuk

Cara Stepanczuk uses quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods approaches to evaluate health care delivery reform and care management programs. They specialize in studying Medicaid beneficiaries with complex care needs and high costs, otherwise known as BCNs or high utilizers.

As part of the Medicaid and CHIP Business Information Solution initiative, Stepanczuk leads the automation of data quality assessments for Medicaid’s new Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Analytic Files (TAF). These assessments serve as the foundation of DQ Atlas. Stepanczuk also has extensive experience using Medicaid enrollment and claims data and CMS-64 financial data for data analytics products.

Past work includes:

• Producing dynamic quarterly reports with performance-monitoring measures for MassHealth’s Community Partners Program, which provides care management and coordination for Medicaid beneficiaries with complex needs for behavioral health care or long-term services and supports
• Creating a claims-based definition for Medicaid BCNs based on TAF data
• Developing claims-based quality measures for Medicaid BCNs based on Medicaid Analytic eXtract data
• Developing claims-based measures in a dashboard reporting system that facilitates learning and monitoring for Medicare accountable care organizations
• Collecting primary data through focus groups for a qualitative study on patient decision making and increasing the use of evidence-based medicine

Before joining Mathematica in 2013, Stepanczuk was a research associate for the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. They hold a master’s in public affairs from Princeton University.