Kentucky Health Cooperative CEO Janie Miller Elected Vice Chair (President Elect) of National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs

LOUISVILLE, Ky., March 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The chief executive officer of Kentucky's all-new, nonprofit health insurance carrier, Kentucky Health Cooperative, Inc., Janie Miller, has been elected vice chair of the board of directors of the National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs (NASHCO). Miller was elected Feb. 24 at NASHCO's annual meeting in Washington, DC. She succeeds Dr. Martin Hickey, CEO of New Mexico Health Connections. Hickey was elected chair of the board at the NASHCO gathering. http://mynmhc.org/

Miller, chief executive officer since 2012 of Kentucky Health Cooperative, Inc., a 501(c) 29 organization headquartered in Louisville, is a recognized healthcare leader. She was appointed in 2008 by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear to serve as Secretary of the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. During her 4-year tenure as Secretary, Miller was also designated by Governor Beshear to lead health reform relative to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and helped architect the Commonwealth's healthcare policy.

The Kentucky House of Representatives honored Miller in 2012 with a resolution recognizing her public service contributions, which also include stints as the Budget Director for the Kentucky General Assembly, the Kentucky Insurance Commissioner and the Secretary of the Public Protection and Regulation Cabinet.

She is a former Director of Operations for a regional Health Maintenance Organization based in central Kentucky and has worked for two large nonprofit hospital systems in Kentucky.

A graduate of Eastern Kentucky University, Miller was inducted in 2002 into its Hall of Distinguished Alumni. She currently serves on the university's Board of Regents. She continues to be focused on improving healthcare for all Kentuckians.

Kentucky Health Cooperative
Kentucky Health Cooperative, based in Louisville, is dedicated to improving health outcomes by providing member-focused, accessible, cost-effective and quality-focused health care coverage to individuals and small groups living in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky Health Cooperative was identified by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to receive loans to create and operate a Consumer Oriented and Operated Plan, or CO-OP. CO-OPs are nonprofit health insurance companies that will be member-governed in 2015. Kentucky Health Cooperative gained approval in March 2013 from the Kentucky Department of Insurance to operate as an insurer in the Commonwealth. Kentucky Health Cooperative began offering health plan benefits on Jan. 1, 2014.

More information: www.mykyhc.org or on Facebook.

NASHCO
The National Alliance of State Health CO-OPs (NASHCO) is the trade association for the non-profit health insurance CO-OP industry. Itself a nonprofit corporation, NASHCO was initially formed by volunteers after the passage of the Affordable Care Act, and was designed to promote the development and success of health insurance CO-OPs. Once several CO-OPs were approved by the federal government, they decided to adopt NASHCO as their association. All health insurance CO-OPs that have signed loan agreements with the Department of Health and Human Services are currently members and directors of NASHCO. NASHCO is helping to facilitate a new way of accessing care using the cooperative governance model. In the last two years, NASHCO has hosted multiple conferences to bring together those interested in the innovations and member governance models of CO-OPs, including health care policy experts, administration officials and congressional staff, health care industry professionals, and employer groups and consumer advocates.

Contact:
Susan Dunlap
Kentucky Health Cooperative
(502) 498-5539

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SOURCE Kentucky Health Cooperative