The governing board of the agency that operates Arkansas' small-business health insurance exchange on Monday gave the executive director a 3 percent raise.
Cheryl Gardner, executive director of the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace, stands to earn $175,100 during the next year, up $5,100 from the previous year.
Gardner started the job in the spring of 2014 at an annual salary of $165,000. She received a raise in September.
Gardner also received a $10,200 performance bonus in March. Most of the agency's 14 other employees also received performance bonuses then, ranging from almost $800 to more than $8,000.
The marketplace board's decision to raise Gardner's pay followed a 45-minute executive session used to evaluate her performance, which several members praised.
"It was very positive," Mike Castleberry, board chairman, said. "She got the shop open on time, working and under budget."
The state Legislature created the agency in 2013, and in late 2014 the board was awarded a $99.9 million federal grant to set up health insurance exchanges for small-business employees and individual consumers.
Created under the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, exchanges are meant to help small-business owners or consumers compare plans offered by different insurance companies.
Individual exchanges also make federal tax-credit subsidies available to consumers who don't qualify for Medicaid and who have incomes of up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level: $47,080 for an individual, for instance, or $97,000 for a family of four.
The small-business exchange opened for enrollment Nov. 1.
The small-business exchange allows businesses with fewer than 25 employees that pay average wages of less than $50,000 annually to apply for a tax credit of up to half of their premium expenses.
As of Monday, 52 groups were offering plans through the exchange. A total of 283 individuals or families were covered under those plans.
The marketplace board's plans for creating an exchange for individual consumers have been put on hold at the request of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who said he doesn't see the need for it.
A federally operated exchange has been providing the service, which the governor has said is working.
Gardner has said that she expects to have spent about $17 million of the federal grant by the end of 2016.
The grant expires at the end of 2017, although the state could apply for an extension.
Information for this article was contributed by Andy Davis of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Metro on 07/12/2016