Wallack did not return calls for comment Wednesday as to whether she has been offered, or would consider taking, the top job at HealthSourceRI, as the Ocean State’s health insurance marketplace is known.
Rhode Island Gov.-elect Gina Raimondo “is expected” to replace current director Christine Ferguson, according to the report, which does not cite a source.
Wallack’s $100,000 consulting contract with Vermont is to manage a $45 million federal grant aimed at reforming how doctors and hospitals are paid for medical services and how those services are delivered. The grant goes through 2016.
The grant funds the Vermont Health Care Innovation Project, which was instrumental this year in creating savings and care coordination programs for Accountable Care Organizations.
The innovation project is likely to take on greater significance now that Gov. Peter Shumlin isn’t going to pursue a single payer program in the near future.
When Shumlin made that announcement, he said his focus would shift to driving down costs in the health care system and reducing the annual growth in spending.
Losing Wallack, who has been involved Vermont health reform efforts for close to two decades, would be a major blow to the innovation project.
Wallack served as the first chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, before she stepped down to take the consulting job. Wallack was also deputy chief of staff to former Gov. Howard Dean.
Wallack lives with her family in Rhode Island. She and her husband, Stanley Wallack, run Arrowhead Health Analytics, a consulting firm based in Fall River, Massachusetts.