The following physician and hospital executive compensation issues occurred in the past two months, starting with the most recent.
1. Jim Nathan, president and CEO of Lee Memorial Health System in Fort Myers, Fla., turned down a $24,000 salary raise, the second time he has turned down a pay bump in the past three years.
2. In his first full year as president and CEO of Novant Health, based in Winston-Salem, N.C., Carl Armato's total compensation reached $2.8 million.
3. Naples, Fla.-based Health Management Associates outlined a compensation structure for interim President and CEO John Starcher Jr. According to the agreement, Mr. Starcher will receive an annual base salary of $800,000. In addition, he received a cash signing bonus of $778,650.
4. The recorded median base salary for health system CEOs increased 4 percent this year, up from last year's median of 3.2 percent and back in line with averages from 2011, according to the 2013 healthcare compensation study from Hay Group.
5. The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union filed a ballot initiative that would restrict California hospital CEO compensation to no more than what the president of the United States receives.
6. The Massachusetts Nurses Association and National Nurses United gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of a ballot measure that would penalize hospitals in the state for excessive CEO compensation. If a hospital that receives funds from taxpayer-funded insurers pays its CEO more than 100 times the amount of the lowest-paid full-time employee of that hospital in a given year, it will be fined equal to the amount the CEO's compensation exceeds 100 percent of the lowest-paid FTE.
7. Integrated Healthcare Strategies and the American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration released the 2013 National Healthcare Leadership Compensation Survey. Salary and cash compensation results were included for CEOs, CFOs and COOs.
8. A study in JAMA Internal Medicine found the current average compensation of a nonprofit hospital CEO is about $600,000, and higher pay is usually associated with larger, urban teaching hospitals with more advanced technology.
9. Cejka Executive Search and the American College of Physician Executives released their 2013 survey on physician executive compensation, find that the median compensation of all physician CEOs and presidents in 2013 was $410,000.
10. In fiscal year 2013, the last year of Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems' existence, Chairman, President and CEO Charles Martin Jr. earned $4.91 million in total compensation.
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