With nearly two decades of experience in healthcare, Andrea Maresca is a skilled legislative and regulatory analyst and strategy developer. She has a strong track record of leading efforts to inform and shape federal Medicaid and related healthcare policies and programs. She joins HMA after serving in private and public organizations including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD).

Prior to joining HMA, she led healthcare regulatory and policy efforts as a senior vice president with a government affairs firm. While there, she assisted clients with analysis and strategy impacting publicly funded programs as well as a variety of needs and urgent demands presented by the COVID-19 pandemic. A skilled analyst, she dissected rules and guidance from federal executive branch entities.

Andrea also previously served at CMS advising agency directors on Medicaid and CHIP services, reviewing and analyzing policy documents for top leadership, and representing the department to agency leadership and executive staff.

As the director of federal policy and strategy for NAMD, she collaborated with the board to execute the organization’s federal legislative and regulatory policy agenda. She also advised state Medicaid directors, liaised with federal policymakers, and maintained strategic relationships with congressional staff and stakeholder organizations.

In addition, Andrea advocated for the nation’s governors on health policy issues as legislative director and senior legislative associate with the National Governors’ Association. Throughout her career she has also worked with other associations and non-profit organizations as well as in direct support of legislatures and is member of several boards and associations.

Andrea earned a Master of Public Health from the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services as well as bachelor’s degree in sociology from Villanova University.

Alona Nenko is an experienced researcher skilled at analyzing data and presenting it in a meaningful way.

As a senior consultant, Alona helps supervise the HMA Information Services team. She provides clients with state-by-state Medicaid information, including quantitative data, reports, business opportunities, state documents, market overviews, and other knowledge. Alona is also an editor of the HMA Weekly Roundup and HMAIS Daily Roundup publications.

Prior to joining HMA, Alona was an associate research analyst for Corporate Research Group. In this role, she authored in-depth reports on topics such as managed care, health insurance exchanges, Medicaid, and Medicare Advantage. She was an editor of a free daily newsletter and collected and analyzed data for other publications. Alona also conducted phone interviews with professionals in the field and market research for clients.

Alona received her Bachelor of Science degrees in applied psychology and cinema and photography from Ithaca College. She is also fluent in Russian.

Carl Mercurio is principal and publisher of Health Management Associates (HMA) Information Services, one of the nation’s leading subscription warehouses of data and public documents related to Medicaid and other forms of publicly sponsored health care.  He also produces HMA’s highly regarded annual conference on Trends in Publicly Sponsored Health Care.

Prior to joining HMA in 2014, Carl spent 14 years as president of Corporate Research Group, a leading health care information research and publishing firm. Carl was the author and lead researcher on dozens of reports, oversaw an industry blog and newsletters, and led efforts that produced a variety of health care conferences and webinars.

Carl earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in literature from the University of Connecticut.

Carl is a semi-professional magician whose credits include Monday Night Magic in New York City, Smoke & Mirrors Magic Theater in Philadelphia and the Chicago Magic Lounge.