Maria Peña is a Senior Policy Analyst with KFF’s Program on Medicare Policy and Program on Medicaid and the Uninsured where she focuses primarily on policy research related to people who are dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid (dual-eligible individuals).

Dr. Peña comes to KFF from the World Health Organization where she conducted economic and policy analysis related to health financing. She focused on assessing the financial risk related to out-of-pocket payments and on tracking health spending across countries. As part of her dissertation research, she examined the association of telemental health use on Medicare spending. Dr. Peña holds a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Texas School of Public Health, MSc in Economics from University College London and a BA in Economics and International Relations from the University of California, Davis.