Rob Houston, M.B.A., M.P.P, is a program officer at the Center for Health Care Strategies. He is involved in projects involving accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other delivery system reforms that aim to improve health quality while reducing overutilization of care. Houston is facilitating development of the New Jersey Medicaid ACO Business Planning Toolkit through funding from the Nicholson Foundation in order to help communities in New Jersey form a sustainable Medicaid ACO. He is also helping to provide technical assistance to 25 states as part of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation State Innovation Models initiative and is a contributor to the ACO Learning Collaborative, which is funded by The Commonwealth Fund. Houston is also part of the Center for Health Care Strategies team partnering with the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy and Camden Coalition of Health Care Providers to spread Camden’s “super-utilizer” model to four cities through a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Health Care Innovations Award.
Prior to joining Center for Health Care Strategies, Mr. Houston consulted with Robert Wood Johnson Partners on issues pertaining to ACO development and the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, where he researched the effectiveness of health care quality measures for the Medicaid population. Previously, he was the manager of special projects for Therapy Dogs International, a nonprofit organization dedicated to sharing therapy dogs with those in need of emotional support.
Mr. Houston holds a master of public policy with a concentration in health policy from the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy and a master of business administration in marketing from Rutgers Business School. He graduated with a bachelor of arts in political science from Rutgers University–New Brunswick.