Top Nevada state health exchange officials moving on

Personnel changes are under way at the state’s health insurance exchange.

Chief Operating Officer Shawna DeRousse said in a Wednesday email to several insurance brokers that she is resigning her post with Nevada Health Link, effective Feb. 3.

Also, Barbara Smith Campbell, chairwoman of the exchange’s board of directors, said she plans step down as board chair as soon as the board can elect a new head. She did not say she plans to leave the board.

Bruce Gilbert, executive director of Nevada Health Link, said the agency has no immediate plan to replace DeRousse. Nevada Health Link is “reevaluating” its structure, given its transition from a state-based exchange to a federally supported state-based marketplace, he said.

“Certainly, we’ll continue to do the things she’s been doing for us, but if you look at exchanges across the country, you’ll see in most of them that there’s been a turning of the page with a lot of people who had gotten in very early on,” Gilbert said. “We’ll take our time, work our way through it and look at internal and external resources to make a determination about what’s best for the exchange.”

DeRousse’s departure comes during the exchange’s second open-enrollment session, which has been substantially more successful than the first sign-up period a year ago. Since firing vendor Xerox in May and switching enrollment to the federal healthcare.gov site in November, the exchange has enrolled more than 50,000 customers. It signed up 36,000 in its first session, from October 2013 to May 2014.

The current sign-up session ends Feb. 15.

DeRousse did not return a call seeking comment on her resignation and its timing, nor did she give a reason for her departure in her email to brokers. But she did write that she “enjoyed working with each of you, learning the business from you, and helping you and others through a very trying implementation and initial year.

“I know it was hard, and I know we didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but I knew that you always had the best interest of your client at heart. I hope you know that was always my goal as well,” she added.

Industry insiders said DeRousse is leaving to work for an insurer.

During the first enrollment period, insurance brokers praised DeRousse and Campbell for intervening personally in problem coverage cases. They echoed those sentiments Friday.

“It’s a great loss. (DeRousse) is a great lady. We’re losing a very, very key person,” said Las Vegas broker Pat Casale. “We agreed to disagree on certain things, but we worked perfectly together. She was a tremendous asset for those people having difficulties procuring insurance in emergent situations. If it weren’t for her and Barbara Campbell, a lot of people still wouldn’t have coverage. Shawna was well aware of certain issues and told the right people what to do, but unfortunately, the people at Xerox were inept on following up to ensure anything was getting done.”

Added local broker Lou Cila: “I would get on the phone with people from Xerox who were very nice but very ineffective, but then I would shoot Shawna an email and the problem would be resolved the next day.”

Both DeRousse and Campbell live in Northern Nevada.

Contact Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.