Healthcare CEOs See Biggest Paycheck Bumps

By Karen M. Cheung for Fierce Healthcare

The healthcare industry saw the largest increases in executive pay out of all sectors, according to a Wall Street Journal and Hay Group CEO compensation survey, released yesterday.

Although healthcare CEOs saw the smallest pay increases out of all industries in 2010, the tides shifted last year, as healthcare executive compensation jumped 7.8 percent in 2011. Healthcare companies’ net income rose 1.1 percent, while the industry saw a 9.8 percent one-year total shareholder return.

In general, industries across sectors pay their chief executives based on the companies’ financial results and share prices with a strong emphasis on pay for performance, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Our study showed that companies proceeded very carefully on both pay levels and pay design in 2011. Directors are taking proactive steps to ensure that their executive pay plans are aligned with shareholders’ desired outcomes,” Irv Becker, Hay Group national practice leader for executive compensation, said in a statement yesterday.

Healthcare execs also are seeing fatter checks, as healthcare becomes increasingly complex, the Coloradoan reported. The CEO of Community Health Systems in Tennessee, for example, has a total compensation package of $21.58 million, far above salaries in Northern Colorado.

However, shareholders of the acute care hospital operator yesterday voted against the pay plan. CEO Wayne T. Smith’s pay rose 6 percent last year, while net income fell 28 percent and the company’s shares lost more than half their value, according to the WSJ.

7 Comments

  1. Vic Anderson on June 8, 2012 at 10:49 am

    DEM Single-PREYERS!



  2. ed cloonan on June 8, 2012 at 10:51 am

    TOO MUCH PROFIT IN OUR HEALTHCARE SYSTEM.WE NEED SOCIALIZED MEDICINE–VA MEDICAL CARE FOR ALL



  3. Mike Williams on June 8, 2012 at 2:14 pm

    INSURANCE:
    There is different types of insurance, such as car insurance, home insurance, health insurance, and burial insurance.

    I live in Texas.
    In Texas they say you have to have car insurance. In Texas they made it a law you have to have car insurance.
    In Texas if you have no car insurance you can get a $400 fine. In Texas if you have no car insurance you can go to jail – into the clink with you. Texas puts a value on property.

    In Texas I have children. Texas does not say you have to have child insurance of any type. If I do not have health insurance for my child Texas has no laws. I will not pay a fine, I will not go to jail, They really don’t care about the chikdren

    In Texas a used Plymouth is worth more than my 6 year old daughter.



  4. motorfingaz on June 8, 2012 at 10:45 pm

    Damn shame….



  5. Al Borg on June 9, 2012 at 6:02 pm

    The only way this country will get back on its feet is to make it illegal for insurance companies to participate in any way in the country’s health care.
    But the supreme court has just declared that a corporation is a person and therefore can buy Congress. The sad part of it is that corpoations already own and operate congress. The Supreme Court has just made it legal.



  6. dabrsagnkuxm on April 19, 2013 at 7:29 am

    xixpjbtjwuza



  7. Dee on April 22, 2013 at 11:08 am

    THIS SHOULD MAKE ALL AMERICANS ANGRY! THAT THEY ARE MAKING THIS KIND OF PROFITS WHILE MY FAMILY GOES WITHOUT HEALTHCARE IS SICKENING! MY HUSBAND IS SELF-EMPLOYED AND I CANNOT AFFORD A PRIVATE POLICY! AND TO SEE THE REDICULOUS BONUS’S AND PAYCHECKS THEY PROFIT WHILE 50 MILLION FAMILIES GO WITHOUT IS BEYOND SHAMEFUL! HOW DO THEY SLEEP AT NIGHT? IT IS ONE OF THE GREAT EVILS OF OUR DAY!