Author Archives: J Wyatt Koma, Marian Jarlenski, and Cheryl Austein Casnoff

About J Wyatt Koma, Marian Jarlenski, and Cheryl Austein Casnoff

Cheryl Austein Casnoff is a Senior Fellow in both of NORC's health research departments, Health Care and Public Health. She has had a distinguished public service career in public health, health financing and health IT, and brings a deep understanding of federal, state, local, and tribal government public health and health systems policies. Highlights of her career include establishing and leading a new Office of Health Information Technology (OHIT) within the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to work with health center grantees across the country to promote the adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records. Austein Casnoff was also instrumental in designing and implementing the original $40 billion Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). As the Director of CHIP and the Director of Benefits, Coverage and Policy for CMCS, she worked with states and regional offices to ensure the timely, efficient approval of Medicaid and CHIP state plans, waivers, and demonstrations including early efforts to promote innovative outreach, enrollment and retention of children in Medicaid and CHIP. As the director of Public Health Policy in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) for almost two decades, Austein Casnoff directed numerous research and policy studies and task forces on critical HHS topics in public health and financing policy. She also has extensive expertise in preparing reports and conducting briefings for senior HHS and OMB officials as well as Congress.

Smoking in America: Medicaid, Quitting, and Income

Over the last few decades, cigarette smoking has become a health burden concentrated primarily among low-income individuals in the U.S. In our recently published research study, Medicaid coverage expansions and cigarette smoking cessation among low-income adults, we sought to determine the relationship between recent expansions of Medicaid coverage and smoking cessation for low-income adults. Demographics… Read More »