Heidi L. Allen

Heidi L. Allen studies the impact of social policies, like Medicaid – America’s health insurance for the poor – on access to health care, health and mental health outcomes, and financial well-being. She is a former emergency department social worker and spent several years in state health policy, where she focused on health system redesign and public health insurance expansions. The primary aim of her research is to eliminate disparities by rigorously informing and evaluating social policies that sit at the intersection of health and poverty. Allen was a lead investigator on the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, a landmark study of the causal effects of expanding Medicaid, where she oversaw primary data collection for mail survey and in-person health screenings, qualitative interviews, and the development of an administrative emergency department claims database. Allen recently concluded an R01 survey and biomarker data collection effort that examined health and mental health outcomes in a randomized control trial of an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit. She has a newly funded R01 that follows up with Pregnancy and Risk Monitoring Survey (PRAMS) participants to understand access to health care, mental and physical health and social determinants of health at 12 months postpartum. This study will produce representative data for seven states and NYC. Allen has worked with numerous administrative data sources in her research, including evictions, payday loans, and all-payer claims health care data. Over the past decade, her research has been published in the leading medical and health policy journals and featured prominently in the media and during Medicaid policy proceedings. Allen is currently serving as a Commissioner on the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), a non-partisan legislative branch agency that provides policy recommendations to Congress, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the states, on issues affecting Medicaid and Medicaid enrollees.

Dr. Allen is also interested in preparing social workers to work in the field of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy (PAT). She has a certificate in Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research from the California Institute of Integral Studies (2023) and completed the MDMA Therapy Training Program offered by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in 2022. Dr. Allen is developing a curriculum for psychedelic assisted therapy (PAT) specific to within-degree training programs for social workers. Columbia School of Social Work is welcoming the inaugural cohort of students for the Psychedelic Assisted Therapy Training Program (PTTP) in fall 2024. Dr. Allen serves on the Clinical Advisory Board at the Usona Institute, which is in Phase 3 clinical trials of psilocybin for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Dr. Allen was a speaker at Horizons New York and Psychedelic Science 2023.