Amber

Sabbatini

MD, MPH, FACEP

biography

Dr. Sabbatini is a physician, health policy researcher, and systems scientist whose work focuses on how payment and delivery reforms—particularly in Medicare and Medicaid—impact hospital care, access, and quality for underserved populations. As an Associate Professor at the University of Washington, she leads a portfolio of federally and foundation-funded studies that leverage large-scale claims and administrative data to evaluate how policies shape healthcare use, spending, and outcomes.

Dr. Sabbatini is a recognized institutional expert in Medicaid policy and access research. She has served as Principal Investigator on two NIH-funded studies from the National Institute of Mental Health examining how state Medicaid policies influence access to care and resource use. Her first R34 study focused on the impact of EHR-enabled care coordination policies on healthcare utilization for Medicaid enrollees who frequently use the emergency department.

Her current work explores how community health centers deliver value to Medicaid programs through behavioral health integration and how state policies enable or constrain the delivery of behavioral health services in these safety-net settings. She is also actively involved as a co-investigator or mentor on multiple other Medicaid-focused studies, examining topics such as the adequacy of Medicaid specialist networks for asthma, access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder, and the generosity of state home and community-based services for dual-eligible individuals.

Her broader research agenda has spanned Medicare readmission policy, hospital observation stays, emergency care quality, and system-level strategies to improve care transitions and reduce low-value utilization. Across her work, Dr. Sabbatini is committed to generating policy-relevant evidence that supports value-based care, improves equity, and strengthens care delivery for publicly insured and underserved populations.

Education & Training: 

• MD, Loma Linda University (2009)
• Residency, Emergency Medicine, University of Chicago (2012)
• Fellowship, Research Fellowship, Health Services, University of Michigan (2014)
• MPH, University of Southern California (2005)

Research & Clinical Interests

Research

• Physician Resource Utilization
• Appropriateness of Hospital Admissions
• Quality and Cost-efficiency of Emergency Care

publications