Health Policy & Financing Strategies

Bender Health Strategies specializes in public policy and financing for health care and homeless services. The firm provides strategic guidance to help clients expand access to health care and housing services, achieve sustainability, and improve the quality of public services.

About Jackie Bender, MPP

Jackie is a seasoned policy expert with nearly 20 years of experience in federal, state, and local health policy. Her state and local work has focused on Medicaid waivers, public hospital and county financing, Medicaid DSH, cross-county collaboration, managed care contracting, and the impact of social services and housing interventions for marginalized communities. She strives to bring thoughtful policy analysis and collaborative problem solving to create breakthrough solutions for her clients.

Services

Policy Analysis

Help clients achieve their policy objectives through up-to-date expertise in Medicaid coverage for health and housing services

Financial Modeling

Develop client capacity to create financial modeling tools for decision support and long-term strategic planning around health care and supportive housing services

Managed Care Contracting

Advise clients on reimbursement strategies for health care and health related social needs

Qualitative Research

Conduct landscape assessments on attitudes, best practices, user experience, and policy implementation, to inform clients’ policy and advocacy needs

Government Relations

Support engagement with government agencies, developing relationships with key officials, and influencing the policy making process

Education & Training

Support clients’ internal knowledge and capacity on technical topics including Medicaid coverage and services, Medicaid supplemental payments, and Medicaid waivers

Areas of Expertise

    • Designing programs for waiver coverage

    • National waiver policy trends

    • State waiver choices and implementation

    • Trends in national policymaking around health care coverage of housing supports

    • State trends in Medicaid housing supports implementation

    • Medi-Cal “CalAIM”, including program rules, funding, managed care contracting, risks and opportunities, and strategies for collaboration and implementation

    • Legislative, regulatory, and sub-regulatory policymaking processes at the federal and state levels