Obama administration appoints HealthCare.gov CEO

The federal health insurance marketplace will have a chief executive officer this year, intended to iron out rough patches in the system.

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The troubled federal health insurance exchange site has a new leader.

Earlier this week, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell created a chief executive officer position for HealthCare.gov and named Kevin Counihan—leader of Connecticut’s celebrated state exchange—to the role.

“We are building strong teams the focus and know-how necessary to advance our mission and deliver impact for the people we serve,” Burwell said. “We are committed to instilling ongoing accountability for reaching milestones, measuring results and ensuring a successful open enrollment period.”

The HHS says Counihan will be responsible for “leading the federal marketplace, managing relationships with state market places, and running the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight,” the group that regulates health insurance from a federal level.

In his duties, Counihan will report the CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

Counihan has previously garnered praise for his work with Access Health CT, the state exchange site for Connecticut, which enrolled 79,000 people for insurance coverage and another 12,000 in Medicaid. The results succeeded enrollment projections, and took the state’s uninsured rate down from 7.9% to just 4%.

The CEO role is one of a few new changes for HealthCare.gov since its flawed rollout last fall. A proposed auto enrollment tool designed to cut down on traffic is being discussed, and fines for not enrolling in a health insurance plan have been capped.

Despite the extra work being done to improve the federal marketplace, however, Andy Slavitt—principal deputy administrator for CMS—warned Congress earlier this month that the site “won’t be perfect” in November, nor “fully ready.”

“It’s a bumpy process at times,” the former UnitedHealth Group executive said during a congressional hearing. “We’ve got committed people who by-and-large are doing a good job. There will certainly be bumps.”

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