McKee names Cory King as state health insurance commissioner

Gov. Dan McKee continues to fill gaps in his leadership team, nominating Cory King to head the Rhode Island Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner on Thursday.

King has served as acting commissioner of the health insurance oversight and regulatory agency since December 2022, following the departure of former commissioner Patrick Tigue. The state has faced a string of vacancies in key cabinet positions in recent years, including many in its health and human services-related agencies.

McKee has been slowly making appointments to fill those openings, including naming Richard Leclerc to head the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Health, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals earlier this month.

McKee’s nomination of King narrows the number of state cabinet and department head jobs without permanent leaders to three: the Rhode Island Department of Health, which is poised to lose interim director Dr. Utpala Bandy on March 31, along with the Department Corrections and the Office of Energy Resources, both of which have temporary leaders.

McKee in a statement praised King as a “dedicated, highly capable leader.”

King began working for the state health insurance agency, which is part of the Department of Business Regulation, in 2019, first as policy director, then as chief of staff beginning in 2021. He was credited by McKee’s office as a “key figure” in a new state data collection and analysis program aimed at promoting affordable insurance premiums for state residents.

He also helped launch a public data hub showing trends in health care spending, use and payment. Under King’s leadership as acting commissioner, the agency conducted and completed its first comprehensive review of Medicaid reimbursement rates, which resulted in rate increases included in McKee’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget.

“It was some of the most intellectually engaging work I have done during my time in state government,” King told Rhode Island Current last October of his work on the Medicaid rates review.

In his current role as senior manager at OHIC, King earned a $143,000 salary in fiscal 2024, according to the state payroll database. McKee’s proposed fiscal 2025 budget sets aside a $221,000 salary for the health insurance commissioner, as part of the office’s overall $4.5 million budget.

King is a graduate of Tulane University with a master’s degree in public policy from Brown University. He also serves as a member of the Coverage, Cost, and Value Steering Committee for the National Academy for State Health Policy. 

The Rhode Island Senate must confirm King’s appointment, a vote on which has not been scheduled as of Thursday.