Michael Levine, a Massachusetts Medicaid executive, has been approved by San Francisco’s Homeless Oversight Commission to serve as the next director of the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. Mayor Daniel Lurie, who nominated Levine, is expected to formally appoint him on Wednesday. Levine previously worked with the city’s health department head Daniel Tsai on Massachusetts Medicaid for four years.
At MassHealth, Levine oversaw a budget of $23 billion with 1,000 employees and managed relationships with tens of thousands of providers contracting with MassHealth. MassHealth serves two million clients, more than 10,000 of whom are homeless. According to the Homeless Oversight Commission, Levine has conducted over 600 audits. His track record includes a redesign of Massachusetts’ behavioral health system that heavily reduced emergency room visits, a tenancy preservation system to keep people in their housing, and a streamlining of processes to enroll homeless people in Medicaid.
This is the second time Mayor Lurie has sought talent from MassHealth—the city’s health department head Daniel Tsai was also previously with Massachusetts’ Medicaid program. Levine’s public sector career has been largely devoted to MassHealth, where he has worked in two stretches totaling nearly nine years starting in 2016. He also previously worked at a nonprofit strategy consultancy in Boston from 2013 to 2019, rising from associate consultant to manager.
Levine is replacing Shireen McSpadden, who announced her departure effective June 30 after a five-year tenure as director. According to Mayor Lurie, Levine “is an expert in connecting health care and homelessness services” and has “seen the power of integrating primary care, behavioral health, and social supports to keep people housed.”
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://us.headtopics.com/news/michael-levine-massachusetts-medicaid-exec-to-head-s-f-81955640