The executive director of Minnesota’s state-run health-care exchange has resigned after coming under fire for taking a vacation even as the exchange worked to double-check up to 40,000 applications and faced glitches and security flaws.
April Todd-Malmov resigned yesterday in a closed meeting with the exchange’s executive committee. She had been joined on her two-week vacation in Costa Rica around Thanksgiving by the state’s Medicaid director. The Star Tribune reports that the two live together and had worked closely to implement the exchange.
Both were said to be in regular contact with state officials during their vacation, and officials from MNsure said there was no conflict of interest.
Todd-Malmov will be temporarily replaced by an interim CEO, Scott Leitz, Minnesota’s assistant commissioner of health care. The executive committee will launch a national search for a permanent replacement.
This is the fourth departure of a state-run health-care exchange chief. The first to go was Coral Andrews of Hawaii Health Connector. Rocky King, Cover Oregon’s former director, took an extended medical leave earlier this month and was replaced by an interim director. Strangely, like Todd-Malmov, Rebecca Pearce of the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange also resigned after a vacation in the Caribbean; however, she was unavailable for communication during her week in the tropics.