By Electa Draper for The Denver Post
The state health insurance exchange is wrapping up interviews and background checks this week in its six-month hunt for a new chief executive officer.
Connect for Health Colorado officials expect to select a finalist or finalists for the job next week.
The exchange is also looking for chief financial and operating officers as well as a full-time internal auditor to work with external state, federal and independent auditors.
The exchange is currently undergoing five audits or reviews, said interim chief executive Gary Drews, who stepped in after the first CEO, Patty Fontneau, left in July to take an executive position with Cigna.
“We’re not going to get out of any holes with the levels of staffing that we have,” Drews said at an exchange board meeting on Monday. “We are up against the wall all the time.”
Drews said one of the top systemic issues facing the exchange, with under a week left in 2015 open enrollment, is being chronically understaffed with only 45 full-time staff members.
