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Megdalynn Fisher
O’Neill School of Public and Envrionmental Affairs
1315 E. Tenth Street Bloomington, IN 47405-1701
(678) 823-3128
megdalynn@outlook.com
Education
Ph.D. PUBLIC AFFAIRS, 2025
O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affaris, Indiana University (IU), Bloomington, IN
PhD Candidate profile
Dissertation Committee: Kosali Simon (chair), Seth Freedman (co-chair), Justin Ross, Coady Wing, John R. Bowblis
Dissertation: “Policy and Unintended Consequences in Healthcare Quality: The Case of Long-term Care”
MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 2019
Marriott School of Business, Brigham Young University (BYU), Provo, UT
Advisors: Rob Christensen, Rex Facer, Andrew Heiss
Capstone: “Enhancing healthcare transparency in Utah: Deriving a composite quality score for public use as a complement to the Total Cost of Care project”
B.S. Economics, 2017
Woodbury School of Business, Utah Valley University (UVU), Orem, UT
Publications
Work in Progress
Work in Progress: working paper
Medicaid expansion has increased the number of nursing home (NH) residents (Ritter et al, Van Houtven et al) but there is a lack of research on individual level decisions and facilty level reactions. To expand this research base, we examine resident level data to determine how quickly Medicaid expansion leads to changes in the type of long-stay patients in NHs, and how that translates into changes in the characteristics of long-stay residents and NHs over time. We hypothesize that SMI populations under 65 will be the group that experiences the largest increase.
Recommended citation: Bowblis, John, Megdalynn Fisher, Madeline Mustaine, and Kosali Simon. "Medicaid Expansion and Nursing Home Outcomes" work in progress.
Work in Progress: working paper
Do nursing home residents with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) receiving antipyschotic medications more often based on ownership structures, and do rates of diagnosis excluding public reporting requirements of antipsychotic medication use differ by these ownership structures?
Recommended citation: Bowblis, John, Megdalynn Fisher, Judith Lucas, Kosali Simon. "Antipsychotic Medication Use Among Nursing Home Residents with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias: Ownership Structures and Racial Disparities." work in progress.
Work in Progress: submitted
We contribute to the literature measuring segregation in the health care setting by constructing dissimilarity indices (DI) for nursing homes and counties to examine relationships with income inequality, reliance on Medicaid, urbanicity, and quality.
Recommended citation: Fisher, Megdalynn, Madeline Mustaine, Kosali Simon, John R. Bowblis. "Racial, Demographic and Health Sorting Among Nursing Home Residents" work in progress.
Work in Progress: working paper
The number of nursing home residents with schizophrenia has increased due to their exemption from the requirement for antipsychotic medication quality reporting. Since public reporting incentivizes either more accurate diagnosis or upcoding, we examine these effects at the reporting threshold based on number of residents in the facility.
Recommended citation: Bowblis, John, Megdalynn Fisher, Kosali Simon. "Nursing Home Use of Antipsychotics: Does Public Reporting Incentivize Gaming?" work in progress.
Work in Progress: under review
Does hospital advertising inform patient choice or represent ‘cheap talk’? We investigate the hospital advertising at the market level, establishing a correlation with end-of-life inpatient spending, a proxy for geographical differences in hospital spending on care with a uniform outcome.
Recommended citation: Freedman, Seth, Victoria Perez, Megdalynn Fisher. "End of Life Inpatient Spending and Hospital Advertising" under review.
Work in Progress: job market paper
Do subsidies through Non-State Government Owned nursing facility supplemental payment programs spur government acquisitions and do the subsidies translate to fewer deficiencies and better quality?
Recommended citation: Fisher, Megdalynn. "Government Intervention in Nursing Homes: Assessing Ownership Dynamics and Quality of Care Under Non-State Government Owned Supplemental Payment Programs" work in progress.
Peer Reviewed
Fisher, Megdalynn. (2017). "The Hope of Mankind." The Journal of Student Leadership. 1(1).
Fisher, Megdalynn. (2017). "Rising Food Prices: The Case of Childhood Poverty in a Developed Economy." NCUR Proceedings.
Presentations
CONFERENCES
November 24, 2024
Poster at Association for Public Policy Analysts and Management (APPAM) Annual Conference, National Harbor, MD
June 19, 2024
Presentation at ASHEcon, San Diego, California
November 09, 2023
Presentation at APPAM, Atlanta, Georgia
September 08, 2023
Presentation at Midwest Health Economics Conference, Chicago, Illinois
February 17, 2023
Presentation at O'Neill Ph.D. Student Association Annual Student Research Conference, Bloomington, Indiana
November 18, 2022
Poster at Association for Public Policy Analysts and Management (APPAM) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C.
March 15, 2021
Presentation at O’Neill Ph.D. Student Association Annual Conference, Bloomington, Indiana
February 15, 2020
Presentation at O’Neill Ph.D. Student Association Annual Conference, Bloomington, Indiana
April 20, 2017
Oral Recitation at Utah Valley University, Orem, Utah
April 06, 2017
Presentation at National Confernece on Undergraduate Research, Memphis, TN
March 01, 2017
Poster at Utah Confernece on Undergraduate Research, Orem, UT
INVITED LECTURES AND SEMINARS
“Bottleneck Lesson: Addressing Pre-requisite Knowledge Shortfalls.” Invited presentation, Seminar in Teaching Public and Environmental Affairs, SPEA-M721, Indiana University, Spring 2025.
“Government Intervention in Nursing Homes: Assessing Ownership Dynamics and Quality of Care Under Non-State Government Owned Supplemental Payment Programs.” Invited presentation, Ball State University, November 6, 2024.
“Hospitals: Market Competition.” Invited lecture, Health Economics, SPEA-H 354, INdiana University, Fall 2022.
“Bottleneck Lesson: Solving Market Demand and Supply Word Problems.” Invited presentation, Seminar in Teaching Public and Environmental Affairs, SPEA-M721, Indiana University, Spring 2022.
Research Experience
RESEARCH ASSISTANT 9/2017 - PRESENT
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
Kosali Simon, 2/2022 - PRESENT
- Private equity investments in nursing homes and home health agencies
- Racial segregation and nursing homes
- Use of antipsychotic medications in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and serious mental illness
- Formal disruptions to care in the nursing facility market
- Hospital price transparency
- Medicaid expansion and the Health and Retirement Study
- Patient sorting and provider characteristics
- CARES Act relief funds
Seth Freedman and Victoria Perez, 8/2019 - 8/2021
- Hospital advertising
- Market concentration
- End of life care
- Healthcare quality
- Section 340B drug pricing program
Jennifer Silva, 2/2022 - 8/2023
- Narrative analysis
- Assembly of qualitative patient interviews with electronic health records
Victoria Perez, 8/2019 - 8/2021
- Medicaid Fraud Control Units and job turnover
- COVID-19 and nursing home quality
Brigham Young University, Provo, UT
Mark Keith and Bill Tayler, 9/2017 - 5/2019
- Healthcare Industry Research Center
- Cost Transparency
- Healthcare IT Vendors
Utah Valley University, Orem, UT
André Luís Rossi de Oliveira, 10/2016 - 3/2017
- Evaluating early grade interventions programs, including mid-term notifications
Research Mentoring Experience
GRADUATE 1/2024 – PRESENT
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
- Project management and research mentoring for a team including three graduate students
UNDERGRADUATE 3/2022 – PRESENT
Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
- Senior honors thesis advising, including research design, technical support, and reviews for fourteen undergraduates.
Research Interests
- Public policy and health economics
- Public Finance and health
- Healthcare labor market
- Healthcare quality and services
Work Experience
DATA ANALYST, 5/2018 – 8/2019
Comagine Health, Murray, UT
- Cleaned, analyzed, and utilized data to produce actionable reports supporting the Quality Payment Program, Total Cost of Care, and Health Innovation Improvement Network for this Quality Innovation Network/Quality Improvement Organization (QIN/QIO).
- Performed and interpreted statistical analysis, creating data visualizations.
- Researched and proposed analysis techniques for public transparency objectives.
- Designed automated reports using Tableau, Excel, Access, SAS, and R Studio.
BOOKKEEPER, 8/2012 – 8/2017
Quickbooks Bookkeeping, Spanish Fork, UT
- Accessed and organized information from various sources to provide monthly and annual financial statements as a self-employed bookkeeper.
- Reduced bookkeeping time by 40% during exceptional company growth (revenues, assets, and cash flows increasing roughly 300%).
OFFICE MANAGER, 5/2012 – 8/2013
Anderson Wood Law, Salt Lake City, UT
- Responsible for creating invoices, billing clients, filing documents, bookkeeping, and providing customer service.
CO-EDITOR, COLUMNIST, 1/2008 - 8/2008
Ross University School of Medicine Student Newsletter, Commonwealth of Dominica
- Published and distributed the school’s newsletter as part of a two-person team.
- Increased readership by 24% and advertising accounts by 50%.
Teaching
Teaching Interests
Healthcare
- Health Economics
- Healthcare Services Delivery
- Healthcare Finance
Economics and Statistics
- Introduction, Principles, History
- Contemporary Affairs
- Public Policy, Econometrics
- Development, Poverty
Public Affairs
- Program Evaluation
- Policy Analysis
- Finance
- Data and Quantitative Analysis
Awards, Honors, and Fellowships
- Roy W. Shin PhD Fellowship, Indiana University, 2024 - 2025
- Merit-Based Summer Fellowship, Paul H. O’Neill School, 2024
- Robert Agranoff PhD Fellowship, Indiana University, 2023 - 2024
- Irsay Institute Fellowship, Indiana University, 2023 - 2024
- Merit-Based Summer Fellowship, Paul H. O’Neill School, 2023
- Graduate Fellowship, Rumsfeld Foundation, 2019 - 2021
- Stewart L. Grow Award, Brigham Young University, 2019
- MPA Academic Award, Brigham Young University, 2019
- Healthcare Industry Scholar, Brigham Young University, 2019
- Mark W. Cannon Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2019
- Summa Cum Laude, Utah Valley University, 2017
- Outstanding Student Award, Finance and Economics, Utah Valley University, 2017
- Professional Association of Campus Employees Scholarship, Utah Valley University, 2017
Service and leadership
- Health Policy Workshop, Student Coordinator, 8/2020 - 8/2023
- O’Neill PhD Student Association President, Executive Board Member 2020 - present
- Conference Discussant, Panel Chair
- Annual American Society of Health Economists Conference
- Annual Association for Public Policy and Management Conference
- Annual O’Neill PhD Student Association Conference
- Bi-annual O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs Undergraduate Honors Thesis Conference
- Economics Advisory Board member, Utah Valley University, 2021 - present
- Program Advisory Committee member, MPA at Brookline College, 2022 - 2023
- Diversity and Inclusion Commitee, Romney Institute of Public Service and Ethics, Brigham Young University, 12/2017 – 5/2019
- MPA Vice President, Events Specialist, Marriott School of Business’ Healthcare Industry Association, Brigham Young University, 9/2017 – 5/2019
- Student Life Representative, Master of Public Administration Association, Brigham Young University, 4/2018 – 5/2019
- Associate Editor, The Journal of Student Leadership, Utah Valley University 5/2016 – 5/2017
- Vice-President, Economics Club, Utah Valley University 8/2016 – 5/2017
- President and Board Member, Ross Spouses’ Organization, Ross University, 5/2007 – 11/2008
- Co-Editor, Columnist, Ross University School of Medicine Student Welcome Packet and Newsletter, Ross University 5/2007 – 8/2008
- Non-profit Board of Directors, New Voice Theater, Alamogordo, New Mexico, 1/2006 – 8/2007
Professional Memberships
