Jessica McNab, MA

Jessica McNab, a senior associate, has more than 13 years of experience leading health policy research. Her expertise is in developing, implementing, and evaluating health programs for federal and state clients to improve healthcare for vulnerable populations. Her work focuses on, among other things, value-based care (VBC), alternative payment models (APMs), accountable care organizations (ACOs), primary care, and maternal and child health. McNab has focused her career on qualitative research and developing collaborative technical assistance (TA) techniques, activities, and resources to help peers learn from one another and build capacity to sustain and scale their innovations. Her work is informed by her background in quality improvement (QI) and patient safety and her formative years as a licensed social worker. She has worked with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ), Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

McNab supports qualitative evaluation activities for the CMS Integrated Care for Kids Model. She supports qualitative data collection activities for the AHRQ National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research. She serves as a coach for the HRSA Bureau of Primary Health Care’s Quality Improvement Fund for Transition in Care for Justice-Involved individuals, leading the design and facilitation of TA activities. She also facilitates change management activities and a community of practice for the HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Strategic Plan Progress and Organizational Transformation project.

Before coming to Abt, McNab was a managing consultant at Mathematica. In this role, she led projects and tasks, supported quality assurance, and served as a subject matter expert. McNab primarily supported learning system and implementation work for CMS models such as States Advancing All-Payer Health Equity Approaches and Development, Making Care Primary, Radiation Oncology, and Next Generation ACO. She also supported projects for the CDC, Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, and state-based projects. Prior to Mathematica, McNab was a quality manager for women’s health and pediatrics at Corewell Health and quality director for American Hospital Association (AHA). At AHA, McNab supported CMS projects such as the Hospital Engagement Network and AHRQ projects such as Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety.

Expertise

• VBC and APMs
• TA and implementation
• Capacity building
• Qualitative data collection
• QI and patient safety

Key Projects

• Integrated Care for Kids, CMS
• Quality Improvement Fund-Transitions in Care for Justice-Involved Populations, HRSA
• National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research, AHRQ
• Strategic Plan Progress and Organizational Transformation, HRSA