Mary Tierney is the TA Partnership's Primary Care Resource Specialist

Dr. Mary Tierney is the TA Partnership’s Primary Care Resource Specialist and a nationally recognized expert in pediatric and adolescent medicine, primary care, and health care financing. Mary’s expertise in Medicaid financing for mental health services was strengthened during her term as Director of the Medicaid program’s Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment (EPSDT) Program in the former Health Care Financing Administration, which is now the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Her background in general Medicaid financing included service as Associate Medical Director for the Chesapeake Health Plan, where she was responsible for the implementation of a Robert Wood Johnson grant to provide services for children and their families who were enrolled in the Medicaid program. She has also served as Medical Director of Health Services for Children with Special Needs (HSCSN), an 1115 Federal demonstration program that provided coordinated care in the District of Columbia for children and adolescents with health and behavioral health concerns.

Dr. Tierney has practiced pediatrics on the staff of the Children’s National Medical Center of Washington, DC since 1989 and teaches pediatric residents at Howard University as a guest lecturer on primary care and child health advocacy. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and winner of the Academy’s Lifetime Achievement Award. She served as a member of the Institute of Medicine’s national Committee on the Consequences of Uninsurance/Subcommittee on Community Effects of Uninsurance. Other pertinent activities include the Advisory Committee to the American Medical Association’s National Coalition on Adolescent Health, Board of Directors of the Consumer Health Foundation, and she is currently the Chair of the District of Columbia’s “Metabolic Advisory Committee for Metabolic Disorders.”

In her role as the Primary Care Resource Specialist she provides technical assistance on Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance (CHIP) funding for behavioral health services for children and adolescents with serious emotional disturbances. In addition, she helps to develop partnerships between primary care and behavioral health care providers for these children. Through the TA Partnership, she is currently working on an initiative to link and align community primary care and mental health service systems. To further this effort, she recently organized a conference focused on developing strategies to integrate SAMHSA-funded System of Care mental health systems and the primary care Medical Home systems, which are funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services. With ongoing input and assistance from meeting participants, she is currently developing an Implementation Guide to help direct State and community efforts to integrate health care systems.