Salazar Chosen as New Colorado Insurance Commissioner
July 25, 2013 by Thomas Harmon, Associate Editor, BestWeek: Tom.Harman@ambest.com
DENVER – Marguerite Salazar, a former U.S. Department of Health and Human Services director, has been chosen as the new Colorado state insurance commissioner.
Doug Dean has been serving as interim director since July 9. Dean was chosen to follow Director Jim Riesberg, who resigned July 8 after two years on the job. Gov. John Hickenlooper, who announced the appointment, said Salazar would start at her new job Aug. 19.
Salazar, HHS’s Region VIII director since May 2010, was largely responsible for implementing the Affordable Care Act in states throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
Among her first jobs as commissioner will be to further development of the state’s health care insurance exchange, Connect for Health Colorado, which will begin enrollment on Oct. 1. But the immediate work at hand is to address the losses that occurred from Colorado wildfires in recent weeks.
“While we are working diligently to get the marketplace set up, we as Coloradans have experienced the highest loss of property including hundreds of homes due to wildfires,” Salazar said. “The Office of the Insurance Commissioner has to address the fact that many homeowners were without adequate insurance and I plan to address that issue immediately.”
The Black Forest wildfire that burned from June 11 to June 20 destroyed 511 structures near Colorado Springs and is estimated by the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association to be the second costliest fire in state history, having caused $292.8 million in insured losses (Best’s News Service, July 16, 2013). Munich Re, in a recent review of catastrophes from the first six months of the year, estimated insured Black Forest Fire losses at $365 million (Best’s News Service, July 9, 2013). Losses in the Black Forest wildfire are topped only by the nearby 2012 Waldo Canyon Fire, which consumed 347 homes and tallied 6,650 claims. It cost insurance companies about $454 million.
Salazar began her career as a mental health therapist at her own business, Access Social Work Services, through contracts with public health agencies, hospitals and nursing homes. Later, she served for more than 20 years as president and chief executive officer of Valley-Wide Health Systems, a community health system serving more than 45,000 Coloradans through 22 primary care and dental clinics. Under her leadership, Valley-Wide Health grew from 50 to 350 employees.