HealthCare.gov To Be Run By Connecticut Exchange Leader

The leader of one of the most successful state-based insurance exchanges will head to Washington to become CEO of the federal marketplace. The CMS named Connecticut's Kevin Counihan to the newly created post on Tuesday.

His appointment is the first step in reorganizing the agency's leadership for HealthCare.gov, which the CMS previously said would also include a new chief technology officer. The CMS did not immediately respond to a request for information on when that post would be filled.

During Counihan's tenure in Connecticut, the state's uninsured rate dropped by nearly half. The state's marketplace was so successful that it began efforts to sell its technology expertise to other states trying to implement their own exchanges.

“Picking Kevin as the CEO of HealthCare.gov is a brilliant move” by HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell, said Dan Schuyler, senior director for exchange technology for consulting firm Leavitt Partners....