Ann M. Volpel
Director, Acute Care Policy

Ann Volpel is the director of acute care policy at The Hilltop Institute. In this capacity, she manages Hilltop's initiatives in Medicaid managed care policy, financing, and evaluation; health plan performance assessment; and healthcare reform analysis. Ms. Volpel directs Hilltop's ongoing analysis and assessment of HealthChoice, Maryland's Medicaid managed care program, as well as Hilltop's analysis of state coverage initiatives.

Prior to her current position, Ms. Volpel was a senior research analyst at The Hilltop Institute. As such, she specialized in health plan performance assessment, pharmaceutical pricing and cost containment, and Medicaid managed care policy. Ms. Volpel completed a study on the application of risk adjustment to assess the quality performance of Medicaid health plans for the Center for Health Care Strategies with funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She provided analytic support to the federal Medicaid Commission and was lead author for the Commission's final report. She also conducted studies on pharmaceutical pricing for Medicaid managed care programs and served as lead analyst for the development of an application tracking system for Maryland's Older Adult Waiver. In addition, she provided leadership for Hilltop's first annual symposium on health policy.

Ms. Volpel was previously director of administrative services for Chase Brexton Health Services, Inc., a community health center in Baltimore. Before that, she was a presidential management intern with the Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and a social insurance representative with the Social Security Administration.

Ms. Volpel has a master's degree in public administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Policy at Syracuse University. She graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in economics from Mount Holyoke College.