The leaders of two health systems on the East Coast are donating their pay or taking a pay cut to address financial strains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eric Dickson, MD, CEO of UMass Memorial Health Care in West Boylston, Mass., and his wife Cathy Jones, MD, are donating their paychecks to UMass Memorial's employee assistance fund, according to Mass Live. Drs. Dickson and Jones will donate 100 percent of their paychecks to the fund for the duration of the pandemic. According to the most recent tax forms for UMass Memorial, Dr. Dickson's annual compensation was nearly $2 million.
South of UMass, the CEO of Jackson Health System, a public hospital system based in Miami, and other executives are taking a 20 percent pay cut, while managers are taking a 10 percent pay cut. CEO Carlos Migoya, who tested positive for COVID-19, said the decisions were among others intended to "keep Jackson alive," including furloughs.
"We must also ensure that Jackson can pay its employees and other bills during the coming months of emergency and in its aftermath," Migoya wrote in an email obtained by CBS Miami. "Our revenues have been devastated by the cancelation of so much non-emergency patient care, and it's not clear when federal relief dollars will arrive or whether they will fill the gap."