Allison Orris is a Senior Fellow and the Director of Medicaid Policy on the Health Policy team. She specializes in Medicaid and other health programs with a focus on advancing state and federal policies to make coverage and health care services available and affordable for people with low incomes.

Orris has more than two decades of experience in health policy, spanning work in the federal government and the nonprofit and private sectors. She held various senior roles at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) during the drafting, passage, and implementation of the Affordable Care Act. While at CMS, she also led Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration negotiations with states to advance Medicaid expansion and delivery system reforms. Orris served as the Associate Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, leading White House and interagency review of regulations and guidance during the Obama Administration. In that role, she also served as a presidentially appointed member of the bipartisan Commission on Evidence-Based Policymaking.

After she left government service, Orris was a partner in a private law and consulting practice where she advised states, providers, and nonprofits on a range of Medicaid, CHIP, and Affordable Care Act policy issues. Orris previously worked at the Center as a Senior Legislative Associate from 2006 to 2009, and earlier in her career served in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Orris is a graduate of Columbia College, Columbia University, and the Yale Law School. She is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance.