Shelly Ten Napel MSW, MPP

Prior to joining the Community Health Care Association of the Dakotas, Shelly Ten Napel served as the Director of the Health Care Reform and Innovation Administration in the DC Department of Health Care Finance (DCHF), which housed the District’s Medicaid agency. Her division developed an agenda for Medicaid payment and delivery system reform. Shelly’s portfolio included health information exchange, Medicaid reimbursement for telemedicine, the development of two Health Home programs,
and coordination of the State Innovation Model planning initiative.

Prior to DHCF, Shelly was a Director for AcademyHealth, working primarily on State Coverage Initiatives (SCI), the national program office for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation state-based coverage programs. After the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), SCI helped coordinate the State Health Reform Assistance Network which supported 11 states in implementing the Medicaid, Exchange, and insurance reform aspects of the ACA. During her time at AcademyHealth, she helped lead the State Quality Improvement Institute, which worked with eight states to improve quality and contain health care costs.

Before AcademyHealth, Shelly was the Development Director for Columbia Road Health Services, a Community Health Center in Washington, DC. Before that, she served as a Policy and Program Manager for the National Rural Health Association where she did health policy work related to health insurance, rural health care quality, the Medicare PACE program, and rural EMS. Shelly spent the first four years of her career working for U.S. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, becoming a legislative assistant on health care issues.