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Michelle Casey, M.S.

Ms. Casey is a Senior Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the University of Minnesota Rural Health Research Center, where she has worked since 1994. Ms. Casey's research interests include access to care for rural Medicare beneficiaries and underserved populations; rural quality and patient safety initiatives; the use of preventive health services by rural populations; access to pharmacy services and dental care in rural areas; end-of-life care in rural communities; rural managed care; and the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Monitoring Program.

She has served as project leader for several major Rural Health Research Center projects involving primary data collection using surveys and case studies as well as statistical analyses of secondary data. Her current efforts include assessing rural hospitals' capacity to implement medication safety practices; analyzing access to hospice care and the use of home health services for end-of-life care of rural Medicare beneficiaries; and Flex Program Monitoring Team projects.

Ms. Casey previously worked on health policy analysis, rural health and primary care programs at the Minnesota Department of Health for 10 years. She played a key role in establishing the Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care and served as Assistant Director of the Office from 1992-1994. Ms. Casey received a B.A. in Anthropology from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1976, and a M.S. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Wisconsin - Madison in 1982.