Megan Cole’s research interests focus primarily on Medicaid and safety-net populations, and how state and federal health reform efforts affect health care coverage, quality, and equity for these populations. She works predominantly with large observational data sets, applying methods in health economics and statistics.

Recent and ongoing work includes examining the impact of Medicaid expansion on coverage, quality, and access for community health center patients; assessing temporal trends and geographic variations in quality and equity of care for community health center patients; examining the role of insurance coverage in access to and disparities in access to specialty care and prescription drugs for safety-net patients; assessing trends in quality and comorbid conditions amongst Medicaid enrollees with HIV; evaluating the impact of a statewide patient-centered medical home program on utilization and cost of care; and evaluating the impact of behavioral health integration into a medical home for Medicaid-enrolled children.

Dr. Cole completed her PhD in Health Services Research at Brown University’s School of Public Health and received an MPH in Health Policy from Yale University's School of Public Health. She also worked as a consultant at The Lewin Group for 6 years, where she worked with state and federal agencies on issues relating to Medicaid policy and health reform.