Monica Thyssen

Monica Thyssen leads the Meadows Institute’s finance and implementation team in creating innovative financing policy and strategies, with the goal of designing a reimbursement environment where best practices in the delivery of behavioral health services are financially sustainable. She provides strategic support to our partners in implementing new programs based on best practices. Most recently, she has been co-directing the Meadows’ efforts to support implementation of the Child Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN) and Texas Health Child Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) with eight of the state’s medical schools, including Texas Tech University Health Science Center at El Paso and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine.

Monica has more than 25 years of experience in behavioral health policy and has held a variety of positions in Texas, including at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, with a primary focus on Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, children’s mental health, and the integration of physical and behavioral health services. She has worked extensively at the national, state, and community level on the execution of major systemic activities and the development and presentation of recommendations that impact behavioral health policy. Monica led the implementation of the integration of physical health and behavioral health services into Medicaid managed care in Texas and has provided extensive technical assistance on integration at both the state and national level.