The Hospital CEOs Keeping Seven-Figure Salaries as Frontline Workers Go Without Pay

https://news.yahoo.com/frontline-workers-going-without-pay-090122282.html

Emily Shugerman
,http://www.thedailybeast.com/•May 2, 2020


In one of the largest ironies of the coronavirus pandemic, thousands of health-care workers across the country have had their wages cut and hours slashed as profitable elective procedures are put on hold. Hospital CEOs have called these measures “painful” and “difficult,” though necessary to make up for millions of dollars in lost revenue. But some executives don’t seem willing to share in the suffering.

Last month, executives at Denver Health received bonuses of up to $230,000, just days after asking hospital workers to reduce their hours or take time off. At the University of Kentucky—which boasts some of the highest-paid administrators in the country—the college president has refused to take a pay cut, despite furloughing 1,500 medical workers. And executives at McLaren Health Care in Michigan have agreed to cut their salaries by just 2 percent—an amount employees facing furloughs called “a slap in the face.

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Hospital CEO salaries have been ballooning for years. According to a study published in Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, the average hospital CEO’s salary increased 93 percent in the decade between 2005 and 2015. In the same time frame, the average health-care worker’s salary increased just 8 percent. The average hospital CEO made $3.1 million dollars a year in 2015, according to the study. The average nurse, meanwhile, made $75,510.

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Hospitals around the country have seen a decline in revenue due to restrictions on elective procedures, which can generate up to 80 or 90 percent of some hospitals’ income. (Even in the epicenter of the pandemic, academic hospital systems in New York City have reported up to $450 million in losses.) Because of this, executives at some hospitals have agreed to reduce their salaries—or even forgo them completely—while the crisis persists.

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At Tenet Healthcare, where thousands of workers have been furloughed, CEO Ron Rittenmeyer recently pledged to give 50 percent of his salary to an employee assistance fund over the next three months. At the same time, however, the Dallas Morning News reported that Rittenmeyer’s pay package increased by 62 percent last year, due largely to stock awards. The board voted to increase his base pay by another $300,000 this February.

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