Politics & Government

Vacationing Maryland Health Insurance Exchange Leader Resigns; State Tackles Tech Issues

As technical issues prevented Marylanders from signing up for health insurance, the exchange's executive director left for a week in the Caribbean.

Rebecca Pearce, the executive director of Maryland’s embattled health insurance exchange, has resigned after the Baltimore Sun reported that Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown questioned her competency, says the Baltimore Business Journal.

Pearce ‘s resignation came a day after Brown, the O’Malley administration’s designated leader of the state’s health benefit exchange, admitted that the system had many troubles but that it wasn’t a time to assign blame to anyone for the problems, the Business Journal says.

The Sun reported that Pearce took a week-long vacation to the Caribbean and that Brown questioned her competency when he was asked about the vacation. She resigned hours later, the newspaper reported.

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Pearce will be replaced on an interim basis by Carlyn Quattrocki.

Maryland positioned itself as a leader when it came to ushering in universal health care. But the Oct. 1 deadline came and Maryland sputtered, with widespread technical problems that prevented many from signing up for insurance.

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The state has brought in a new leadership team for the exchange — including Gov. Martin O’Malley’s top health care reform advisor and information technology chief — to help turn around the troubled Maryland Health Connection, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

At a press conference Tuesday about the exchange, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown said the governor’s office was not initially aware of the severity of the exchange’s problems and has since taken an “all hands on deck” approach to rectifying the situation, the Business Journal said.


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