After receiving only two applications for its open executive director position, the board planning for a possible state-run health-insurance exchange on Wednesday decided to extend the application period for the job through March 1.
According to records released by the board Wednesday, one of the two applicants is state Rep. Mark Biviano, R-Searcy, who sponsored the law last year that created the Health Insurance Marketplace Board.
Biviano said Wednesday that he decided to apply to become director of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace after being “asked by some of my colleagues who were familiar with my background in health care and health-care information.
“I’m considering this because I think it’s a great opportunity to offer my skills to the state,” Biviano said. “I’ve had a great experience being a public servant and seeing what is possible, and I think we’ve got some great opportunities in Arkansas in the health-care field, and if possible I’d like to make a contribution to that.”
Arkansas Code 21-1-402 prohibits a legislator from being hired by a state agency during the legislator’s term in elected office.
Biviano said he didn’t know how that law would apply to the Health Insurance Marketplace, which was incorporated as a nonprofit organization but is supported by the state and is subject to state oversight.
“I’m sure that will be evaluated,” Biviano said. “I want to do everything in accordance with the law.”
Gov. Mike Beebe doesn’t object to Biviano’s application, but “does have concerns” about whether hiring Biviano would conflict with state law, spokesman Matt DeCample said.
Beebe “assumes that it will be fully and properly checked out by the board and potentially” the attorney general’s office, DeCample said.
Board Chairman Sherrill Wise didn’t return a call seeking comment on Wednesday on Biviano’s application.
Act 1500 of 2013, sponsored by Biviano, created the Health Insurance Marketplace Board and directed it to decide whether Arkansas should take over the operation of its health-insurance exchange from the federal government.
Set up in every state under the 2010 federal health-care overhaul law, exchanges allow people to shop for coverage and apply for federal subsidies.
Arkansas is among more than 30 states with a federally run exchange. The remaining states opted to set up their own exchanges.
Enrollment in insurance plans offered through the exchanges began Oct. 1, with coverage starting Jan. 1.
The board began advertising for an executive director in December.
A job advertisement for the director position says the salary will be “commensurate with experience,” but board member Steve Faris has said it should be at least $10,000 less than Insurance Commissioner Jay Bradford’s annual salary, which is $129,525.
According to his resume, Biviano owns a real estate brokerage in White County, along with commercial buildings, rental houses, apartments and automatic car washes.
From 2005 to 2009, he was vice president of the global health-care industry business unit at the Walldorf, Germany-based business software company SAP.
From 1999 to 2005, he worked for Reston, Va.-based Oracle Corp., where he was vice president of health-care solutions.
The other application came from John Burke of Orange Beach, Ala., who described himself as an executive information technology manager “with more than 20 years of broad technology management experience.”
“My most recent experience was serving as a Senior Program Manager at the U.S. Department of State and as the Senior IT Advisor to the [chief information officer] of the Iraqi Minister of Interior,” Burke wrote in an email accompanying his resume.
Arkansas, Pages 15 on 01/16/2014