Greg Woods
Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services
As Assistant Commissioner for the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services in New Jersey’s Department of Human Services, Greg Woods leads New Jersey’s Medicaid program and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which together are known as NJ FamilyCare.
Since 2019, Greg has led policy and innovation work at DMAHS. In that capacity he led multiple major initiatives, including the renewal of New Jersey’s comprehensive 1115 demonstration, the introduction of new payment models and program innovations to NJ FamilyCare, and the unwinding of special eligibility rules put in place during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Prior to his time at the state, he worked at the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, where he served in a number of roles, including as the Director of the Policy and Programs Group. He has also worked at the federal Department of Health and Human Services, for a health policy consulting firm, and for a non-profit focused on behavioral health issues. He has a Master’s in Public Affairs from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs, and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University. He lives in Mercer County with his family.
New Jersey’s Medicaid team is working aggressively under Governor Murphy to expand access to care and address critical health care challenges, including:
- Expanding access to opioid addiction treatment by removing Medicaid prior authorization requirements for medication-assisted opioid treatment, investing in training more health care providers to offer opioid addiction treatment, creating new Medicaid payments incentives to encourage primary care providers to provide medication-assisted treatment, funding two Medicaid Centers of Excellence for opioid treatment and requiring residential treatment facilities that receive Medicaid to provide access to medication-assisted treatment;
- Creating new autism benefits under the New Jersey Medicaid program to expand access to these important services;
- Establishing doula services in Medicaid to provide additional supports to pregnant women and to respond to evidence showing the impact of doula care on improving health outcomes for women of color;
- Implementing new ways to support mental health care providers in designing services and offering care to individuals with co-occurring developmental disabilities and behavioral health conditions;
- Expanding Hepatitis C treatments for Medicaid enrollees;
- Creating a new family planning benefit program for women and men with incomes that are higher than traditional Medicaid eligibility; and,
- Removing barriers to tobacco cessation benefits in Medicaid to make it easier to tackle this leading preventable cause of death.
The Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs, together known as NJ FamilyCare, are jointly funded by state and federal resources totaling more than $14 billion and provide health coverage for approximately 1.7 million New Jerseyans with low-to-moderate incomes.
