MD-Exchange Board Announced

May 26, 2011, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley appointed the board members charged with overseeing Maryland’s Health Benefit Exchange. Appointees include Georges Benjamin, M.D., Executive Director of the American Public Health Association; Lisa Dubay, Ph.D., Urban Institute Senior Fellow; Darrell Gaskin, Ph.D., Associate Professor and a Health Economist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; Jennifer Goldberg, J.D., LL.M., Assistant Director of Advocacy for Health Care at the Maryland Legal Aid Bureau, Enrique Martinez-Vidal, Vice President at AcademyHealth and Director of State Coverage Initiatives program; and Thomas Saquella, M.A., former President of the Maryland Retailers Association. The remaining three board members are the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, the Commissioner of the Maryland Insurance Administration, and the Executive Director of the Maryland Health Care Commission.

The Board will host its first meeting on June 3, 2011 and a second one a few weeks later. Maryland plans to apply for an Exchange Establishment Grant by the end of May. Governor Martin O’Malley is also opening an Office of Health Care Reform, which will be led by Carolyn Quattrocki.