Gov. Asa Hutchinson has replaced the chairman and one other member of the state board that received a $99.9 million federal grant to establish health insurance exchanges for small-business employees and individual consumers.
Chris Parker, an attorney who was elected chairman of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace Board on Sept. 30, and Annabelle Imber Tuck, a former state Supreme Court justice, have been removed from the board.
Their replacements are John Womack, chief executive of Arvest Bank in central Arkansas, and Phillip Gilmore, chief executive of Ashley County Medical Center in Crossett.
Parker and Tuck were appointed by Gov. Mike Beebe, a Democrat, in 2013.
Hutchinson, a Republican, "has a different vision" for the board, spokesman J.R. Davis said. "These two members of the AHIM board that Gov. Hutchinson has appointed are people that share his vision the most for the direction of AHIM."
Hutchinson appreciated Parker and Tuck's contributions, Davis said, adding that the decision to replace them didn't reflect on their abilities to carry out their duties.
The Legislature created the 11-member board in 2013 to explore the creation of state-run health insurance exchanges.
Under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, health insurance exchanges allow consumers to shop for coverage and apply for income-based subsidies to help pay for it.
Hutchinson has said he doesn't see the need for a state-based exchange for individual consumers.
But he also has said he wants to wait until state leaders decide on changes to the state's private option and other parts of its Medicaid program before making a final decision on whether to go forward with the creation of a state-run exchange.
Gilmore and Womack said Monday that they don't have an opinion on that issue. They said they also don't have any other particular policy changes they want to pursue as board members.
"I'm just kind of getting in the saddle," Womack said.
Both he and Gilmore are on the board to represent health insurance consumers.
"Health care affects all of us, and I want to be of help as an individual in any way that I can." Gilmore said.
Beebe appointed Parker to an eight-year term that would have expired in 2021 and Tuck to a four-year term that would have expired in 2017.
But under Act 1100, passed by the Legislature this year, the marketplace board members appointed by the governor no longer have terms of a specified length. Instead, they serve "at the pleasure of the Governor."
"It's [Hutchinson's] administration, and this allowed him to get people in there that are going to present his perspective," said Rep. Micah Neal, R-Springdale, a sponsor of the legislation.
The law also gave Hutchinson more flexibility in appointing members to several other state boards, while making some of the appointments subject to confirmation by the state Senate.
The marketplace board appointments aren't subject to Senate confirmation.
Parker and Tuck said Hutchinson's chief of staff, Michael Lamoureux, told them about three weeks ago that the governor planned to replace them.
Parker said he wasn't surprised.
"It makes sense for the governor to have people that he has a connection to and he has some confidence in" on the board, Parker said.
Tuck said, "I'm not going to sit here and say that I'm not disappointed, because I am disappointed" that she won't be able to serve as long as she had initially expected.
But she added, "We're grown people. These things happen, so I've got to move on."
Davis said he didn't know of any plans by Hutchinson to replace the board's vice chairman, Mike Castleberry, who was appointed by Beebe to a six-year term representing insurance agents and brokers and now serves at Hutchinson's pleasure.
The board also includes six members who continue to serve terms of specified lengths. Those include three members appointed by the Senate president pro tempore and three members appointed by the speaker of the House.
The initial terms range from four to eight years. Subsequent terms will be for six years.
The directors of the departments of Human Services and Insurance are nonvoting board members.
An exchange for small businesses and their employees, set up by the board under a $7.2 million contract with Reston, Va.-based hCentive, opened for enrollment on Nov. 1.
The board had also planned to set up an exchange for individual consumers that would begin accepting sign-ups next fall.
At Hutchinson's request, the board has put that project on hold.
Without such an exchange of its own, Arkansas is among 30 states that rely on federally run exchanges for individual consumers.
Under the private option, the state uses Medicaid funds to buy insurance on the federally run exchange for more than 180,000 low-income Arkansans.
Sen. David Sanders, R-Little Rock, and the chairman of a committee that monitors the marketplace board, said Parker and Tuck "did a lot of hard work and grueling work."
He also has confidence in Womack and Gilmore, he said.
"They'll do a fantastic job," Sanders said.
A Section on 12/01/2015