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NORC at the University Chicago

Gretchen Williams Torres

Pronouns: She/Her

Vice President
Health Care Evaluation
Gretchen is a mixed-methods researcher who studies the implementation and impact of novel approaches to health care payment and delivery.

Gretchen is vice president in the health care evaluation research department, providing technical direction, conceptual design, and financial and quality oversight to projects for government and nonprofit clients. Gretchen has led systematic reviews, qualitative comparative analyses, survey analyses, and portfolio analyses, and has overseen the analysis of health care claims data. She has conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews and focus groups with program participants, community members, health care administrators, and clinical leaders and staff. Gretchen has written and presented on mixed methods in health policy research, cross-sector collaboration, and care transformation for people who are underserved in health care. Her research appears in peer-reviewed publications and other formats designed to reach policymakers and practitioners.

Gretchen maintains an active research portfolio in accountable care organization (ACO) models, safety-net providers, and the intersection of health and public health systems. She leads mixed-methods research for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ ACO Realizing Equity, Access, and Community Health (REACH) and the Next Generation ACO model evaluations. She serves as principal analytic lead for NORC’s contract with the Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation’s Office of Science and Data Policy. She directed technical assistance for states participating in the CMS State Innovation Model Initiative and synthesized implementation and impact results from CMS’ primary care transformation and accountable care portfolios for the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. She led a long-term evaluation of the Health Forward Foundation’s Safety-Net Capacity Expansion program. 

Prior to NORC, Gretchen was a Merck fellow in health economics at the University of Chicago. She was also research director at the American Hospital Association’s Health Research and Educational Trust, where she led a research and technical assistance portfolio focused on hospitals and their role in public health improvement.

Project Contributions

Evaluation of the ACO REACH Model

Evaluating the ACO REACH model that is transitioning Medicare from fee-for-service to value-based care

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Evaluation of the Next Generation Accountable Care Organization Model

Assessing CMS’s innovative ACO model to improve outcomes and reduce costs for Medicare beneficiaries

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Patient-Driven Research Community Learning Network

A learning network to enhance and sustain PDRCs that enable research prioritized by the communities they serve

Funder:

Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI)

Supporting States’ Medicaid and Medicare Reform Efforts

Technical assistance and implementation support for CMS’s State Innovation Models Initiative

Client:

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Publications

Research Library & Findings