U.S. Hires UnitedHealth’s Slavitt to Lead Obamacare Effort

The UnitedHealth Group Inc. executive whose Optum division helped states and the federal government fix Obamacare health exchanges will become second-in-command at the agency that runs the U.S. program.

Andy Slavitt, Optum’s group executive vice president, was named principal deputy administrator at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S. officials said. The company he comes from, UnitedHealth, is the nation’s largest health insurer.