Melanie Bush

Melanie Bush is Interim Deputy Secretary of Medicaid for the North Carolina Division of Health Benefits (DHB), Department of Health and Human Services – also known as NC Medicaid. In this role, she provides leadership, strategic direction, operational oversight, and managed care supervision for the North Carolina Medicaid program, which serves more than 3 million North Carolinians who cannot afford health care.    

As Assistant Secretary and Chief Operating Officer, Melanie and her teams led the implementation of managed care transformation, the unwinding of continuous coverage for the COVID-19 public health emergency, and an expansion of Medicaid that extended access to care to more than 700,000 additional North Carolinians.   

Melanie also serves as a Governor’s appointee to the Board of Trustees for the North Carolina State Health Plan, which provides health care coverage for state and county employees.  She is committed to ensuring high-quality health care at the lowest cost possible for the State of North Carolina. 

Prior to joining NC Medicaid, Melanie was the Medicaid Fiscal Analyst for the Fiscal Research Division of the North Carolina General Assembly (NCGA), where she led the Health and Human Services budget team.  Her previous roles also include Senior Policy Analyst for Medicaid at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) and Policy Analyst for the Center for Community Change in Washington, DC.  

Melanie holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a Master of Public Affairs from the University of Texas at Austin.