Albert Lowey-Ball, MS, MA, is a health economist and President of Albert Lowey-Ball Associates, Inc. (ALBA). He is currently serving as a Health Economics and Medicaid Advisor to the California Program on Access to Care, UC Berkeley, School of Public Health (CPAC). He helped develop CPAC's approach to implementing National Health Care Reform in California, with emphases on Health Insurance Exchanges (HIE), Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and risk adjustment. Recently, he worked extensively on State health insurance, Medicaid managed care and Medicaid data systems issues. In 2004-2005, he prepared economic analyses of health care mergers, hospital reimbursement approaches and the impacts of Medi-Cal managed care expansion.   He also completed work estimating savings and benefits-related impacts from certain Workers Compensation reforms for Bickmore Risk Services. He recently worked as an HMO quality and economics consultant to the California Office of the Patient Advocate and as a health economist to a firm providing actuarial services to CalPERS. In 2002, he worked as a Medi-Cal consultant, estimating impacts of price and benefits changes and changes in delivery systems, to Health Net, one of California’s largest health plans.  In 2001, Lowey-Ball served as a consultant to The Lewin Group on the Health Care Options Project estimating the benefits and costs of alternative state health insurance approaches. He has extensive experience working with state health databases from the Department of Health Care Services, Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, Department of Managed Health Care, Department of Industrial Relations, the Department of Insurance, and the Employee Development Department.

In 2000, Lowey-Ball was a co-author of Global Health Care Markets, a comprehensive guide to health systems around the world. He served as an advisor to CalPERS on the benefits and costs of direct provider contracting. He has consulted to major HMOs and Medi-Cal managed care plans, health care purchasers, hospital-health systems, medical groups, health data systems vendors, labor unions, other consulting firms and public agencies in California and other states in the last 20 years. Lowey-Ball played a pioneering role in the development of Medi-Cal managed care plans in California in the 80s and 90s.  He helped start California’s first County Organized Health System, the Santa Barbara Health Initiative (now CenCal Health). He has commented on health care marketplace developments to local and national media. Lowey-Ball is a graduate of Rice University, Georgetown University and the University of Maryland where he received, respectively, a BA in History, MS in International Economics, and MA and PhD Candidacy in Economics.  He served as part-time faculty in health policy and economics at the University of San Francisco, Dominican University in San Rafael and Holy Names University in Oakland.  He now serves as a Research Affiliate at the Center for Health Research and Policy in Primary Care at the UC Davis School of Medicine/Health System.

Additional Background:

Recent UC Resume

Who's Who

Interview with the Sacramento Business Journal
Sacramento Business Journal, June 6, 1997

Some Publications

California Health Care Reform Proposals

Potential Cost Impact of Managed Care Expansion To The SPD Medi-Cal Population in 2007 (Tables 1-16 in Excel)

CalPERS - Health Benefit Plan Design Analysis

Impacts of Major Medi.doc

Media Mention

Aetna working on a comeback as player in local HMO game.doc

Healing Process.doc