State health care exchange officials said they had thoroughly vetted Christa Ann McClure, the Connect for Health Colorado director they placed on paid administrative leave Tuesday after learning she had been indicted for stealing from her last employer.

McClure, 51, pleaded not guilty Feb. 6 in federal District Court in Montana to eight counts of theft and fraud from a nonprofit housing agency in Billings.

She was indicted Jan. 16 and notified her current Denver employer, the state-sponsored health exchange, on Monday, a few days after the story broke in Montana media, Connect for Health spokesman Ben Davis said in a telephone interview.

Connect for Health performed a criminal background check and checked references before hiring McClure in March, Davis said.

“She was completely clean,” he said. Her position as executive director of Housing Montana of Billings, he said, made her well-qualified for her post as Connect for Health’s director of partner engagement — she was liaison with state and federal partners, such as Medicaid officials. The job pays $130,000 a year.

“Integrity and public trust are paramount to the mission of Connect for Health Colorado,” Davis said in a statement released Wednesday. “We take extensive measures to protect consumer information and technology systems.”

Connect for Health Colorado, a new health insurance marketplace, was established by a state law in 2011 and opened for business in October. Its official name is the Colorado Health Benefit Exchange.

In her job with the exchange, McClure doesn’t have access to any of the exchange’s finances, Davis said.

McClure, who has not been convicted of any charges, should have informed Connect for Health much earlier of the accusations she was facing, Davis said.

The charges against her are “very serious, and we are taking this very seriously,” he said.

The allegations are now part of a scandal-riddled narrative for federal and state health insurance exchanges — under the microscope of political opponents looking for missteps, local political and communications consultants said.

“This simply contributes to the fact that the overall implementation of health-insurance reform has been troubled by an endless series of embarrassments,” said political analyst Floyd Ciruli. “This can’t help.”

Eric Anderson, of communications consulting firm SE2, said public reaction to allegations against McClure probably would be magnified because of the politically charged atmosphere surrounding the new health care law.

“If you’re getting the kind of scrutiny the exchange is getting,” Anderson said, “in my opinion, the wisest approach for it to take is maximum transparency.”

McClure was released pending trial, now scheduled for June. Each of the counts in the indictment against her carry potential penalties of five, 10 or 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

The 12-page indictment alleges that, while serving as executive director of the federally funded Housing Montana, McClure, between 2008 and 2010, paid herself “significant sums” for consulting services, although she was already on the payroll as a full-time employee.

She also made payments to her family and used federal money for personal travel, to pay family bills and to buy consulting services, the indictment alleges.

She also is accused of charging homeowners for a $750 warranty that did not exist, converting a laptop for personal use, inflating the hours she was to be compensated and writing herself a $21,000 check to which she was not entitled.

The indictment did not specify the total amount she allegedly embezzled.

McClure had oversight of a $514,000 federal rural development grant to Housing Montana to build 22 homes for low-income residents.

Electa Draper: 303-954-1276, edraper@denverpost.com or twitter.com/electadraper