Minn. governor moves forward on insurance exchange, shifts oversight

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton is shifting responsibility for a key part of the federal health overhaul in his state -- a health insurance exchange -- to a different state agency. He's also moving forward on implementing the exchange, he said Tuesday.

Minnesota Public Radio: Citing Potential Conflicts Of Interest, Dayton Moves Insurance Exchange To Budget Office
Gov. Mark Dayton is changing the leadership of the administration's work on a key part of the federal health care law in Minnesota -- the insurance exchange. The governor is shifting the project's oversight from the Department of Commerce to the state Management and Budget office. The move follows complaints that the Commerce Department was too secretive in developing an the health insurance marketplace, and questions of possible conflict of interest for the department (Stawicki, 9/18).

Minneapolis Star Tribune: Dayton Moving Ahead On Health Insurance Exchange
Gov. Mark Dayton told legislative leaders Tuesday that he will seek federal approval to move forward on a Minnesota-made health insurance exchange, but he sought to assure Republican opponents that he will defer important policy decisions until after the November election. Dayton also said he was shifting responsibility for leading the "next phase" of the exchange to a new state agency. The actions are a sign of continued movement to set up a state-run exchange, a key component of President Obama's health care law. The exchanges are scheduled to launch nationwide in 2014 and aim to be competitive marketplaces for individuals and small businesses to comparison shop for health insurance (Crosby, 9/18).

(St. Paul) Pioneer Press: Minnesota Health Exchange Planning Shifted To New Agency
The Dayton administration is shifting responsibility for creating Minnesota's health insurance exchange to a new state agency. The move by Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton follows weeks of criticism from business leaders that they couldn't get enough information about the project from the Commerce Department. The planning job will now fall to Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner James Showalter, according to a Tuesday, Sept. 18, letter from Dayton to legislative leaders (Snowbeck, 9/18).

And in California --

California Healthline: Exchange Narrows Name List To Four
At yesterday's meeting of the state's Health Benefit Exchange board, Chris Kelly, the exchange's senior advisor for marketing and outreach, presented the four finalists in the project to pick a new name for the exchange -- the name that will be used to market the exchange's choices and services. "We brought forward about 13 names last time [at the Aug. 23 board meeting]," Kelly said, "including Wellquest and, of course, Avocado -- that is still a crowd favorite." Kelly prefaced his presentation by reiterating that each proposed name includes a marketing package with a unique logo and tagline -- "a voice of its own," as Kelly put it (Gorn, 9/19).