State exchanges struggle; losing leadership along the way

While most of the attention around the Affordable Care Act has centered on the challenges of the federal government’s healthcare.gov, a number of the 17 states running their own exchanges continue to struggle leading to the resignation of their leaders.

Health insurance exchange heads in Minnesota, Maryland and Hawaii have all resigned, while the executive director of Oregon’s exchange has taken an extended medical lead without a return date. Colorado’s exchange director also backed off her request for a yearend bonus.

So why are these directors leaving and are more to come?

A new article in Forbes looks at the statistics regarding signup for the Affordable Care Act and sees that of the four states that lost their directors, all were underperforming estimates through the first 11 weeks of sign-up.

Other states that could be in trouble of turnover at the top: New Mexico, Massachusetts, Idaho, D.C., Nevada, Colorado and Vermont.

“The media narrative following the rocky healthcare.gov rollout has been to focus on the ‘well-performing’ state versions,” Forbes writes. “But that is far from reality as a couple of states are carrying the enrollment weight, and a quick review of the early enrollment numbers show how poorly even the best-performing states are really doing.”

It continues: “State officials at the state-based exchanges have been putting in long hours leading up to the rollout and ever since Oct. 1. Burnout will often be used as the reason for leaders leaving, but given the enrollment performance in a number of states, boards might expedite that process.”