Local Hospital Execs Received $1 Million Each In 2011
Local hospital executives brought in paychecks and compensation packages of between $1 million and $2.1 million in 2011, according to a recent Globe report.
The newly released information includes executives from all of Boston’s largest nonprofit teaching hospitals. Each executive drew in large pay packages that included salaries, bonuses, and compensations such as health and life insurance and retirement benefits. Gary L. Gottlieb, the chief executive of Partners HealthCare, which is Massachusetts largest hospital and physician organization, received a compensation of $2.1 million in 2011. This information comes from federal tax documents, according to the Globe.
Why is this information coming out now? Nonprofits are allowed to wait 18 months before revealing the details of executive compensation packages because they are allowed filing extensions by the Internal Revenue Service, the Globe says. In a surprise downgrade for Gottlieb, he received nearly $1 million less than he did in 2010. Peter Slavin, the president of Massachusetts General Hospital, brought in $1.7 million in 2011. Elizabeth Nabel, the president of Brigham and Women’s, received a total of $1.9 million.
“In a big successful teaching hospital, it’s very rare to see anything less than $1 million in total compensation for the chief executive, and $1.5 million to $2 million is the norm,” Paul R. Dorf, the managing director at Compensation Resources Inc., said in the Globe report. “Executives at publicly traded pharma or medical device companies can make 10 times as much.”
Ellen Zane, the chief executive of Tufts Medical Center, received $1.6 million in benefits in 2011 after only working through September 2011. James Mandell, the chief executive at Boston Children’s Hospital was paid $1.5 million in 2011. Boston Medical Center‘s chief executive Kate Walsh was listed at nearly $1.4 million, and Dana-Farber‘s chief executive, Edward Benz Jr., received $1.3 million.
As prices for health care insurance in Massachusetts go up and benefits go down (according to the Center for Health Information and Analysis) we can’t help but wonder about the discrepancies between the cost of health care and the incredibly large paychecks of local hospital executives.
