David Idala
Director, Medicaid Policy Studies

David Idala is the director of Medicaid policy studies, an area within the acute care policy and research unit at The Hilltop Institute. He is responsible for program evaluation, data analysis, and addressing related policy issues for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Mr. Idala is currently the principal investigator of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation SHARE funded project that evaluates the Maryland Kids First Act outreach effort using state tax returns to identify uninsured children potentially eligible for Medicaid or the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP). His particular interests and experience encompass the assessment of health care utilization and performance measurement for chronic diseases. At Hilltop, Mr. Idala serves as the lead evaluator of health service utilization in Maryland's Medicaid managed care program, HealthChoice. He also leads analysis of the HealthChoice's value-based purchasing (VBP) program, as well as the asthma and diabetes managing for results programs.

Prior to becoming director, Mr. Idala was a senior research analyst at Hilltop and conducted various health care-related research studies, including those focused on dental and emergency department utilization, physician reports, avoidable hospitalization, and other service utilization in Medicaid and CHIP. Mr. Idala has also undertaken studies examining strategies for assessing health plan performance for Medicaid beneficiaries with chronic diseases.

Mr. Idala holds a master's degree in economic policy analysis and a bachelor's degree in economics from UMBC. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in public policy at UMBC.