Salo Health
Bringing the public
and private sector
together for a stronger
Medicaid program.
Strategic Advice and speaking Engagements
Matt Salo is the President and CEO of Salo Health Strategies, a boutique health care consulting firm in the Washington DC area that specializes in strategic advice, health care policy, Medicaid market development and relationship building across 56 states and US territories.
BACKGROUND
Matt is a nationally recognized expert in Medicaid, state government, health care reform, federalism, and long term care. Matt has extensive experience in public speaking before audiences up to 1500 people, is frequently quoted in major mainstream news media and health care trade press, and has guest lectured at GWU, NYU, Duke, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Virginia. He is currently President and CEO of Salo Health Strategies, which he founded in 2022.
Matt has been named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the 500 most influential people in Washington DC for the last 3 years, and he is widely viewed as the preeminent expert on Medicaid in Washington, DC. Matt is a member of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI), and was recognized by the National Academy of State Health Policy as its 2022 Academy Award Winner for a lifetime of contributions to health policy.
Matt is the founding Executive Director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD), having started the association in February 2011, and worked in that role until he stepped down in August 2022. The organization represents the state government leaders in each of the 56 US states and territories responsible for administering the Medicaid program. His roles included creating a permanent community for state leaders to share best practices, develop technical assistance, invest in leadership development, and formulate a strong unified voice for states in communication with Congress, the Administration, and other key national stakeholders. He built the organization from an initial staff of one to a full-time complement of ten staff and an operating budget of more than $3 million.
Matt formerly spent 12 years at the National Governors Association, where he worked on the Governors’ health care and human services reform agendas. His major accomplishments included getting legislation passed that guaranteed state control the entire $250 Billion tobacco Master Settlement Agreement for the states, which resulted in Forbes Magazine naming NGA one of the nation’s top ten most influential lobbying organizations. He also worked to get legislative approval of more than $100 billion in state fiscal relief during the Great Recession; and in bringing bipartisan groups of Governors together on multiple occasions to reach agreement on Medicaid reform proposals, ultimately serving as the backbone for the Deficit Reduction Act of 2007.