Taylor Melanson

Taylor Melanson is a researcher in the Evaluation, Methods, and Analytics program area within the Health Division at AIR. He is a health economist with training and experience in quantitative research, econometric analysis, program evaluation, and causal inference using experimental and quasi-experimental research methods. His areas of expertise include chronic and end-stage kidney disease (CKD), organ allocation policy, healthcare payment and delivery models, policy evaluation, and health disparities.

He currently serves as a task lead on the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices Model. This project aims to encourage increased use of home dialysis and kidney transplant as treatment options for Medicare beneficiaries with ESRD using payment adjustments.

Dr. Melanson works on the financial methodology team for the Kidney Care Choices Model which provides financial incentives to dialysis facilities, nephrologists, and other health care providers treating patients with CKD/ESRD to improve the quality of care and encourage transplantation. He also works as part of a multidisciplinary research team using the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services research identifiable files in the Chronic Conditions Warehouse Virtual Research Data Center, and data spanning pre-pandemic and pandemic periods to better understand the myriad ways that COVID-19 has impacted Medicare beneficiaries.

He has extensive experience in evaluating the impact of health policy decisions on disparities in access to care within the patients with CKD/ESRD population. His work has been published in peer-reviewed journals in fields such as policy, nephrology, and transplantation.