Laura Barrie Smith is a research associate in the Health Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Her current research uses Medicaid claims data to study racial health equity among Medicaid-enrolled children and evaluates the effects of integrated care plans for individuals dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid. In other recent work, she assesses disparities in access to telehealth and preventive care during the COVID-19 pandemic, examines the role of public transportation in access to care, and analyzes the impacts of health information technology incentive programs on Medicaid providers and enrollees. She has expertise in using large datasets, such as Medicare and Medicaid claims and electronic health records, in her research.

Before joining Urban, Smith worked at the Lewin Group, where she focused on Medicare payment policy evaluations. Smith holds a BA in mathematics from St. Olaf College and a PhD in health services research, with an emphasis in health economics, from the University of Minnesota. While at the University of Minnesota, she was awarded an R36 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality for her dissertation research on nurse practitioner scope of practice laws.