Indiana Medicaid director to resign
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Indiana Medicaid Director Allison Taylor will resign “later this summer” after eight years with the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration and six years in the role — and as the program makes drastic adjustments post-pandemic.
“Allison has led Medicaid through its most transformative time,” FSSA Director Dr. Dan Rusyniak said in a news release. “The positive impact she has made will benefit Hoosiers for decades to come. We will miss her.”
Under Taylor, the agency’s Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning won the country’s first 10-year federal extension for its Medicaid expansion alternative, dubbed the Healthy Indiana Plan. Extensions are typically for two or three years.
The office also scaled up telehealth services, expanded treatments for substance use disorder and serious mental illnesses, created a reimbursement rate matrix for providers and more, according to the news release.
“We focus every day on serving Hoosiers and helping them live their best lives, in fully integrated communities,” Taylor said. “During the pandemic, Medicaid flexed and did what it does best – served individuals and communities in need.”
Taylor began with FSSA as general counsel before taking charge of the Medicaid division in 2017. She served as the National Association of Medicaid Directors’ president in 2022.
She will step out as Indiana reorients its Medicaid efforts post-pandemic. More than 100,000 Hoosiers lost government health insurance coverage in April and May — the first two months of states “unwinding” federal pandemic-era protections.
Key lawmakers this session expressed increasing unease with the program’s growth.
Cora Steinmetz, who has served as Gov. Eric Holcomb’s senior operations director for health-related state agencies since 2021, will be Taylor’s successor. That role has included working with FSSA, the Department of Child Services and the Indiana Department of Health.
“Over the last two years, I have been fortunate to work side-by-side with the Medicaid team and other agency leaders on a number of key health strategies and initiatives,” Steinmetz said. “This has given me a firsthand view of the incredible impact this team has on our state and I look forward to continuing the important work underway.”
Taylor will resign “later this summer,” according to the release. An FSSA spokeswoman said an end date hasn’t yet been set.
“The Indiana Medicaid team is unlike any in this nation, moving mountains to serve Hoosiers, and I will enthusiastically work to ensure a smooth and successful transition,” Taylor said. “This work has been the honor of a lifetime.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, not-for-profit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.