Steven B. Larsen, who has been directing the implementation of one of the most controversial aspects of federal health reform, is leaving his government position to take a job at UnitedHealth Group.
Larsen, former Maryland insurance commissioner, is resigning as head of the U.S. Center for Consumer Information and Insurance oversight in July, according to media reports.
Larsen will take a position as executive vice president at UnitedHealth’s Optum unit, according to an email cited by Bloomberg BusinessWeek.
Larsen was a key player in the implementation of the medical loss ratios, the provision in the health reform law used to force insurers to spend at least 80% of individual and small-group premiums, and 85% of large-group premiums on medical costs. As a result of that change in January 2011, agents and brokers have seen their commissions on health plans sold decrease by as much as 50%, according to a U.S. Government Accounting Office report.
Larsen, prior to taking his position with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he also is working on the implementation of health exchanges in each state, previously worked for Amerigroup Corp., a Virginia Beach, Va.-based Medicaid insurer. He joined HHS in 2010, shortly after the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which is now under U.S. Supreme Court review, with its ruling due any day now.
Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, temporarily replaced Larsen with Mike Hash, an adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, former Kansas insurance commissioner.
Larsen, man behind the MLRs, leaving health reform position via IFAwebnews .
