Dive Brief:
- Prussia, PA-based Universal Health Services Chairman and CEO Alan Miller earned more than $51.3 million in 2016, making him the highest-paid hospital industry CEO, Becker’s Hospital Review reported.
- Elsewhere, WellCare CEO Ken Burdick’s total compensation package rose to $9.26 million last year, up 18.8% from 2015, buoyed by strong earnings of $242.1 million, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported. And Kindred Healthcare CEO Benjamin Breier’s compensation spiked $28.6%, according to Home Health Care News.
- Not all hospital CEOs saw their compensation rise. Community Health Systems CEO Wayne Smith’s compensation was roughly halved — from $10.4 million in fiscal year 2015 to $5.8 million last year — due to a $1.7 billion loss last year, Modern Healthcare reported.
Dive Insight:
Rising salaries have put some healthcare executives in the crosshairs. In North Carolina last week, lawmakers voted 109-0 to approve a bill that would cap salary and compensation for top executives of behavioral health managed care organizations.
Specifically, House Bill 403 would bar an organization’s board from paying more than 30% of the average salary of CEOs at other behavioral health managed care organizations operating in the state.
The bill seems targeted at Cardinal Healthcare Innovations CEO Richard Topping, whose salary and annual compensation were $635,000 and $1.2 million, respectively. The average salary for a managed care organization in the state is $200,000.
Healthcare generally is a lucrative employment field, with doctors leading Glassdoor’s 2017 list of 25 highest paying jobs in America. The median base salary for a physician is $187,876, followed by pharmacy managers at $149,064. Other health-related positions on the list were medical science liaison, pharmacist, physician assistant and nurse practitioner.