Longtime Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont employee Kevin Goddard retired quietly at the end of April, VTDigger learned Thursday.
Goddard, who retired with the title Vice President of External Affairs, joined Blue Cross as its first director of external affairs in 1990. Before that Goddard was a wire-service and Statehouse reporter.
“For 25 years Kevin Goddard was an exemplary role model for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont employees, genuine in has actions and words. His dedication to countering unfairness in the health care and doing the right thing for Vermonters paved the way for BCBSVT to serve its members today. He will be missed,” company officials said in a statement.
Blue Cross is Vermont’s largest insurer and covers close to 200,000 lives – almost one-third of the state’s population.
Officials would not say what Goddard will receive as a retirement package, and that information won’t be public until the insurers next annual report to the Department of Financial Regulation in March 2016.
Goddard received $297,358 in total compensation in 2014, and was the eighth highest paid Blue Cross employee. Ten executives received a total of $3.4 million last year, according to its filing with DFR.
After the state determined in 2010 that former Blue Cross CEO William Milnes Jr. received excessive compensation and an excessive retirement package regulators said Blue Cross had taken steps to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
