Patty Fontneau, the CEO and executive director of what is formally called the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange, has only been on the job since December. Before joining the exchange, Fontneau served as chief operating officer for the law firm Holme Roberts & Owen LLP, and chief administrative officer for IMA Financial Group Inc., and has served on many Denver-area nonprofit boards.
...
Colorado’s plans have been scarcely less controversial than the federal version, however. The Colorado exchange was created last year in a bipartisan bill cosponsored by House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Monument. The bill didn’t spell out how the exchange would work, but set up a board appointed by the governor to fill in the details and the board hired Fontneau to run the new enterprise.
Stephens has since come under fire from fellow conservatives for what opponents nicknamed “Amycare” and the exchange has been a central issue in the primary contest between Stephens and Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan. Looper sponsored a bill that would repeal the state’s exchange law if the Supreme Court finds the Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, although the measure appears unlikely to go anywhere in the Democrat-controlled Senate.
None of this controversy is lost on Fontneau, but she says she’s focused on getting the exchange up and running....
...
Q: It’s a year and a half before your launch date. What are you working on now?
A: We just released a request for proposals for the service and technology platform that will drive the exchange going forward. That will be the technology, including the website, where people will go to find information on different plans, as well as the call center. In addition to that, we also released a separate RFP that focuses on the program management office, which is an extension of staff to help implement the technology.
Q: What’s the exchange going to look like? How will it work?
A: Service is our top priority as we are moving forward with developing and designing this. There are vendors that have experience in this. There are private exchanges. They are not starting from scratch — they have created models and they have created the interfaces for customers to design and to use.
We are also working with the board on setting up the development of the organization — all the work that is required in order to start a company. That’s a part of this process to determine what the longer-term vision of this is going to be.
http://www.gazette.com/articles/-133551--.html
Hat tip: Colorado Springs Gazette
No comments:
Post a Comment