WOODLAND HILLS, Calif.—Anthem Blue Cross of California President and General Manager Leslie Margolin has resigned more than two years after taking the helm, the insurer’s parent company confirmed Tuesday.

Mark Morgan, Anthem’s vp of small-group sales, is replacing Ms. Margolin on an interim basis, effective immediately, Anthem said.

Ms. Margolin led Anthem, a subsidiary of Woodland Hills, Calif.-based WellPoint Inc., when the Obama administration this year severely criticized the insurer for proposed rate hikes averaging 25% for many of its nearly 800,000 individual policyholders in California. The hikes were canceled, however, as a result of regulators discovering calculation errors in the rate filing.

Ms. Margolin was responsible for health plan management including product and service innovation, underwriting and sales as well as client and broker relations for small- and large-group health coverage, the company said in a news release at the time of her appointment in 2008.

WellPoint officials did not comment specifically on Ms. Margolin’s departure, saying only in a written statement that she “played an integral role in collaborating with hospitals and providers across the state” of California and championed innovations to improve patient safety.

“Anthem would like to thank Leslie for her leadership and commitment to the company over the past two years,” according to the statement.

Prior to joining Anthem, Ms. Margolin was senior vp of health plan and hospital operations at Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente. Before that, she spent 13 years at CIGNA Corp., holding the positions of president and general manager of CIGNA HealthCare of California and assistant general counsel.