Updated: Additional information on Ario’s new job, Pratter’s career. 8:29 a.m. Aug. 10.

Pennsylvania’s insurance commissioner, Joel Ario, is taking a position in the Obama Administration, where he will direct the creation of health exchanges.

Joel Ario

Gov. Edward G. Rendell announced Ario’s departure today (Aug. 9). Rendell appointed Ario in July 2007, and he worked in an acting capacity about a year before his confirmation in June 2008. Ario was Oregon’s insurance commissioner prior to moving to Pennsylvania.

Robert L. Pratter, an executive deputy general counsel, will take over for Ario on an interim basis, starting Aug. 30.

Ario’s new job is in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He will serve as director of the Office of Insurance Exchanges of the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. His new position and the health exchanges, set to launch in 2014, are part of the federal health reform law enacted in March. Through the exchanges, consumers and small business owners will be able to compare prices and buy their health insurance in a competitive marketplace.

Pratter has served as the executive deputy general counsel for litigation with the state’s Office of General Counsel since 2008.  During his legal career, Pratter has specialized in regulatory, corporate and judicial proceedings affecting the insurance industry. He has also led complex commercial litigation and has extensive experience in regulatory matters before various commonwealth agencies.

Prior to his public service, Pratter had been senior vice president and general counsel for PMA Capital Corp.

Ario’s career has been marked by advocacy for those who are uninsured and underinsured, and he spoke often on behalf of Rendell’s push to expand adultBasic and other government programs targeting those lacking health insurance.

In 2008, Ario presided over hearings and the attempt by the state’s two largest health insurers, Highmark Inc., based in Pittsburgh, Pa., and Independence Blue Cross, based in Philadelphia, to merge, a consolidation that would have made the resulting entity one of the largest in the nation. The companies withdrew the request after Ario told company officials that that one or the other of the companies would have to relinquish its service mark of Blue Cross or Blue Shield, a requirement both companies’ chief executives refused to consider.

With the second term of Rendell, a Democrat, expiring in January, Ario, also a Democrat, could have found himself without a job, especially if a Republican took over. When he joined Rendell’s staff in 2007, Ario made it clear he did not expect his tenure in Pennsylvania to go beyond Rendell’s term.

Ario had replaced Diane Koken, who held the post for nine years before resigning to serve on the board of Nationwide Insurance.