Deputy Director • CMS Innovation Center
Ellen Lukens is the Deputy Director of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMS Innovation Center). In this role, Ms. Lukens leads policy development at the CMS Innovation Center. Ms. Lukens has deep experience both within and outside the government tackling complex health policy issues.
Prior to this role, Ellen served as the Group Director of the Policy and Programs Group (PPG) within the CMS Innovation Center, where she led the team that provides cross-cutting support for Center-wide policy and portfolio management, including related to the Advanced Payment Model (APM) portion of the Medicare and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA).
Ms. Lukens also served as the Division Director for Ambulatory Payment models, where she led development of physician-focused specialty care models, including the Oncology Care Model. Prior to joining CMS, Ms. Lukens led the Provider Practice at Avalere Health. In that role, she worked with hospitals, physician groups, and post-acute care providers on many policy and strategy issues, including developing analytic tools to improve provider performance and to evaluate participation in CMMI models.
Prior to Avalere, Ms. Lukens held policy roles in hospital associations. Ms. Lukens began her health policy career as Presidential Management Fellow at CMS. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan.