About
I direct health policy, regulatory strategy, and government programs for a multi-state managed care organization. My job is to turn federal and state rulemaking into the coverage, cost, and access decisions that shape care for millions of people on Medicaid and Medicare. I got here by working the same system from three different seats instead of just one.
I've worked this system from three positions that rarely sit in one résumé. For four years I did Medicaid and Medicare policy analysis inside Illinois state government, the agency that writes the rules. I led analytics and cost strategy on the provider side, where those rules reach patients. Now, as a director in managed care, I advise senior leadership on how CMS rulemaking, the Inflation Reduction Act's drug-pricing provisions, Medicare Part D, redeterminations, and 1115 waivers land on real operations and budgets.
Because of that, I can read a federal regulation and tell you what it says, what a health plan will do in response, and what it will mean for a patient in an exam room. Very few people can do all three.
This work has never been abstract to me. I've lived many of the questions I now work on, shaped by family, faith, and a community I've stayed close to, and I've sat on more than one side of the systems I help run. The details matter to me because behind every rule is a real family trying to get care.
I believe a system this powerful can be made to serve the people who depend on it. I intend to help build it.
In 2024 I ran for Congress in Illinois's 6th District on healthcare affordability and drug-pricing reform. As an EMILY's List Fellow with no corporate PAC money, I built coalitions across labor, healthcare, and community groups and earned more than 11,000 votes against an incumbent, making a complex policy case to voters, press, and skeptics. I also serve on the board of the American Muslim Health Professionals' Chicago chapter. Running for office clarified what I want to do with everything I know, and it is a path I intend to keep walking.
I'd rather be credible than loud, and I won't put my name on anything I can't defend to people who know the subject better than I do. But being right isn't the whole job.
The best policy work doesn't just describe the system — it makes someone's Tuesday easier.
Civic life
From local civic institutions to the ballot box, Mahnoor stays involved in the DuPage County and Chicago communities her work is meant to serve.
Credentials