Curt Mueller is an economist and health services researcher with over 30 years experience specializing in rural health. He is an expert in quantitative and qualitative research methods and applications, research management, research design, evaluation, policy analysis, preparation of reports for government and private sector clients.

Mueller is a lead researcher for several ongoing research studies for the ETSU/NORC Rural Health Equity Research Center, including analyses of cost and length-of-stay for rural versus urban hospital stays for treatment of substance use disorders, an all-payer study quantifying rural hospital bypass, and an examination of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hierarchical Condition Categories for rural and urban Medicare beneficiaries. He also serves a senior advisor for the Pennsylvania Rural Health Model Evalution.  

Mueller served as the Director of Research and Evaluation for the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy (FORHP), coordinating in-house and extramural research and evaluation activities and overseeing Office-funded Rural Health Policy Research Centers. He directed the Division of Research on Traditional Medicare, Research and Evaluation Group in the CMS Innovation Center, coordinating evaluations, reviewing research design and analysis plans, advising leadership on demonstration and model design options. Mueller also served as an Economist with the Physician Payment Review Commission. Mueller has taught statistics, cost benefit analysis, and health policy at Syracuse University's Maxwell School in the Department of Public Administration. Mueller has co-authored articles that have appeared in leading publications such as Journal of Environmental and Public Health, Medicare and Medicaid Research Review, and Journal of Rural Health.

Having spent a portion of his extensive tenure as a senior research scientist with NORC in the early 2000s as the Walsh Center's first director, Mueller continues to conduct impactful research on rural health care markets and the impacts of Medicare payment policies on rural areas.