The state health insurance exchange’s board Monday picked the governor’s chief administrative officer, Kevin Patterson, as interim CEO.
Board members said they would like Patterson ultimately to be the candidate for permanent chief executive, which would end a search that has gone on for nine months.
In a unanimous vote Monday morning, the board selected Patterson to guide Connect for Health Colorado through the next critical weeks of decisions related to budget, financial sustainability, technology fixes for a glitchy open-enrollment system and its relationship to the state’s Medicaid agency.
“I am excited by the opportunity to help more Coloradans get health insurance, to obtain the health care they need and to enjoy the financial security that comes with coverage,” Patterson said in a statement.
Patterson will be paid $199,200 a year in the interim position, exchange spokesman Luke Clarke said. The exchange’s first CEO, Patty Fontneau was making $195,314 plus bonuses when she left in July.
Patterson had served on the Connect for Health Colorado board as an ex-officio member from May 2013 to December 2014.
“Patterson brings some interesting dynamics to the table,” said Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, who heads the legislative committee overseeing the exchange. It must approve the selection of a CEO.
Roberts said she would be looking at whether a man who has been a top pinch hitter for Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, would be “unduly influenced by his immediate past employer.”
Patterson will step down from his position in the governor’s office to take his new job effective May 8, exchange board chair Sharon O’Hara said. He will relieve Gary Drews, who has served in that position since August and was being paid $195,300 a year. Drews did not seek to hold the post long term.
The exchange board had picked a finalist for CEO April 1, but the candidate, Robert C. Malone, recently withdrew his candidacy before the review and approval processes were fully underway.
The nine-month hunt for a new CEO has led to delays in filling several empty key slots, such as chief financial and operating officers, that a CEO would pick. Altogether, the already lean 48-person exchange staff has 12 empty positions during a critical time in its development as major revenue and technology issues loom.
Patterson was appointed by Hickenlooper as his chief administrative officer in January. He also has served as the interim director for the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. He has been on the State Board of Equalization, the Capitol Building Advisory Committee and the State Internet Portal Authority.
Patterson was named in November as Hickenlooper’s interim chief of staff. He was picked, according to the governor’s statement at the time, for “his experience, intelligence, unflappable demeanor and natural inclination to put the people of this state first will help ensure a seamless transition.”
Roberts said the Colorado Health Insurance Exchange Oversight Committee will not be rubber-stamping Patterson’s selection.
“I want to know that the person who takes that job will ask the hard questions,” she said. “I am going to want to hear he is going to be focused on helping consumers obtain insurance,” and not making the exchange a service center for all human services, such as Medicaid.
Roberts said the exchange’s sharing of an online enrollment portal with the state Medicaid system, administered by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, has created costly problems for the exchange. Yet the “no wrong door” policy is a federal requirement under the Affordable Care Act.
“Medicaid might literally have to pay the exchange,” Roberts said.
Patterson has a long resume of government service, including a spot on the Denver School Board, executive director of General Services and Parks and Recreation in Denver and, just prior to his appointment as the governor’s interim chief of staff, four years as deputy chief of staff.
Patterson also served as the interim executive director of the governor’s Office of Information Technology and the governor’s Energy Office.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper
