Megan Cole Brahim, PhD, MPH

Dr. Cole is faculty and Division Director in the Division of Health Policy and Insurance Research (HPI) in the Department of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute. She is also co-director of research & evaluation for the TEAM UP Scaling and Sustainability Center, adjunct faculty in the Department of Health Law, Policy, and Management at Boston University School of Public Health, and co-founder of the Medicaid Policy Lab. She is a health services researcher who uses causal inference methods to study Medicaid policies, health care delivery reforms, and health insurance, and how these things affect quality of care, access to care, and equity of care. Most of this work centers on Medicaid enrollees and other low-income, safety-net populations, especially those served by federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), with a focus on mental health, maternal health, and child health. Her work leverages large datasets, including national Medicaid claims data; All Payer Claims Data (APCD); electronic health record (EHR) data; and national and statewide patient survey data.

Dr. Cole is the Principal Investigator (PI) of national and statewide research studies that are funded by the NIH and private foundations, including two current R01 studies. Ongoing work spans the topics of Medicaid accountable care organizations (ACOs), maternity care integration within FQHCs, telehealth innovations, Medicaid eligibility expansions, mental health integration into primary care, underinsurance, and addressing unmet social needs (e.g., food insecurity, housing insecurity) of patients within health care systems.

Dr. Cole completed her PhD in Health Services Research at Brown University School of Public Health and received an MPH in Health Policy from Yale University School of Public Health. She previously worked in research consulting, where she worked with state and federal agencies on Medicaid policy and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. She currently serves as co-editor-in-chief for the Journal of Ambulatory Care Management and serves on the editorial board of Health Services Research. Her work has been covered by outlets including the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Vox, US News & World Report, The Hill, and Forbes.