The Insane Salaries of Hospital and Insurance Executives

[FutureDO2016]

It's absolutely ridiculous that hospital execs and insurance execs with less education than a doctor have salaries above 500K with benefits and stock options adding up to millions...I'm not saying doctors are not paid well, because they have good salaries after years of education/training but these execs are making insane amounts of money (millions each year) and no one is saying anything or doing anything about it....Are only a handful of execs earning this much or do most hospital execs at each hospital make salaries like these?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/sunday-review/doctors-salaries-are-not-the-big-cost.html

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[IlDestriero]

My hospital CEO makes over $2m.

 

[Decremaster]

A few comments on this. Executives of most kinds have very stressful jobs and work as many or more hours than physicians do. Also although they don't have to do nearly as much educational training as physicians they do have to have really good work experience over many years before being considered for a hospital CEO position. Also their job security is not nearly as good as physicians - if things aren't going well at the hospital the responsibility ultimately falls onto them since they are in charge of the business. Finally, we live in a capitalist culture that allows for these kind of things. Like it or not it is what makes much of our economy tick. Also the beauty of a free market is that you could work your way up and take that position yourself if you so desire - I promise it won't be easy. I'm not saying it is right or just or that these CEOs are worth the money they get paid but it is the way things work today and the possibility of these jobs is what keeps many people working hard day in and day out. My 2 cents...

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Decre, lets not pretend that a CEO works any harder than a worker who lifts concrete blocks every day.

 

[doapplicant2015]

Decre, lets not pretend that a CEO works any harder than a worker who lifts concrete blocks every day.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

I think that CEOs by and large are way overpaid and some kind of reform should be involved, but the CEO is more like the ortho doctor that creates a new tool and gets rich, or the plastic surgeon working the system to be at the top 1% of pay. The number of people that start med school and actually become a doctor is incredibly high, 98% i would guess. The number of people who start business school with dreams of becoming a CEO and make it are extraordinarily low. The vast majority end up in middle management. So comparing every doctor to the CEO in pay doesn't really equate. They are a select few that everything went right for. They are the ortho docs that created a tool to change the industry. Everyone dreams of it, but only one or two make it. And when a doctor starts practice, he can go 30-50+ years. 10 years seems to be the average for all company CEOs with many of the major company CEOs under 5 years. And as someone who has family that have been major executives, they have no less sacrifices that medicine.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Honestly, I'm not trying to appear as a communist here. But carving away even half of that CEO's pay ( A million is still a more than adequate pay to live quite well) is at least either 5-6 full time doctors, 20 nurses, 40 lab techs, or 50 custodians that can be employed by the hospital. Likewise it could easy supply most of the employees a much needed adjustment in living bonus.

But that's my opinion. I grew up with parents who made an engineer's salary and I thought we lived very well off.

 

[Dr. Death]

Decre, lets not pretend that a CEO works any harder than a worker who lifts concrete blocks every day.

Completely agree with this. Yeah sure CEO's probably work harder than they are perceived to, but in my experience, the CEO and board of directors don't do much of a damn thing except cut costs and line their pockets.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

I think that CEOs by and large are way overpaid and some kind of reform should be involved, but the CEO is more like the ortho doctor that creates a new tool and gets rich, or the plastic surgeon working the system to be at the top 1% of pay. The number of people that start med school and actually become a doctor is incredibly high, 98% i would guess. The number of people who start business school with dreams of becoming a CEO and make it are extraordinarily low. The vast majority end up in middle management. So comparing every doctor to the CEO in pay doesn't really equate. They are a select few that everything went right for. They are the ortho docs that created a tool to change the industry. Everyone dreams of it, but only one or two make it. And when a doctor starts practice, he can go 30-50+ years. 10 years seems to be the average for all company CEOs with many of the major company CEOs under 5 years. And as someone who has family that have been major executives, they have no less sacrifices that medicine.

Honestly, the key is to have a culture where your CEO actually cares about all your workers enough to adjust their pays to keep them at the very least out of poverty. In other nations like Japan the employer sees it as his duty to feed his employees and support their livelihood as long as they work there.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Honestly, the key is to have a culture where your CEO actually cares about all your workers enough to adjust their pays to keep them at the very least out of poverty. In other nations like Japan the employer sees it as his duty to feed his employees and support their livelihood as long as they work there.

will definitely agree with that. but that is more of a political/societal problem. people refuse to believe that we are all in this together.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

will definitely agree with that. but that is more of a political/societal problem. people refuse to believe that we are all in this together.

I think that there is a logic in both a bottom up social change as well as a top down effect change. I believe fundamentally what this country needs is a change in culture and perspective.

 

[Seth Joo]

It's absolutely ridiculous that hospital execs and insurance execs with less education than a doctor have salaries above 500K with benefits and stock options adding up to millions...I'm not saying doctors are not paid well, because they have good salaries after years of education/training but these execs are making insane amounts of money (millions each year) and no one is saying anything or doing anything about it....Are only a handful of execs earning this much or do most hospital execs at each hospital make salaries like these?

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/18/sunday-review/doctors-salaries-are-not-the-big-cost.html

One of the CEOs of the major insurance plans made over $100 million in a year. We live in a country where corporate executives earn much higher compensation than workers.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

One of the CEOs of the major insurance plans made over $100 million in a year. We live in a country where corporate executives earn much higher compensation than workers.

And that's fine. I'm not against a CEO making more money. But when single man earns the GDP of a small nation....

 

[Seth Joo]

Honestly, the key is to have a culture where your CEO actually cares about all your workers enough to adjust their pays to keep them at the very least out of poverty. In other nations like Japan the employer sees it as his duty to feed his employees and support their livelihood as long as they work there.

My family is Japanese, relative to workers Japanese CEOs are paid more modestly and workers tend to paid better, there is far less disparity between the rich and poor and you see its effects in society. I am even considering returning to Japan when I am older.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

My family is Japanese, relative to workers Japanese CEOs are paid more modestly and workers tend to paid better, there is far less disparity between the rich and poor and you see its effects in society. I am even considering returning to Japan when I am older.

Most first world nations are like that tbh.

 

[GUH]

If you don't like it, then work in your own practice and don't accept insurance. Otherwise, you're just warning their salary for them.

 

[Seth Joo]

Most first world nations are like that tbh.

Actually Japan is more orderly than even Europe, I have met Europeans in Japan commenting how lone women on subways never clench their purses. When I lived in France for a year, I met a Frenchman who spent several years in Japan and thought while France is generally safer than the US, Japan is more orderly than France, especially if you consider recent events of the past decade.

Paris has some pretty sketchy parts, but still nowhere near as bad as some US cities.

 

[scoKraz4]

Forget insurance company ceo's. Look at pharmaceutical and medical device companies. Insurance companies are wayyy down on the list of profitable industries.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Actually Japan is more orderly than even Europe, I have met Europeans in Japan commenting how lone women on subways never clench their purses. When I lived in France for a year, I met a Frenchman who spent several years in Japan and thought while France is generally safer than the US, Japan is more orderly than France, especially if you consider recent events of the past decade.

Paris has some pretty sketchy parts, but still nowhere near as bad as some US cities.

I mean, you guys still have gumi and yakuza.

But idk, I don't think it's all that flowers and joy in Japan either.

 

[jl lin]

There is whatever the market will bear, and then there is insane greed, which ultimately cripples the entire system. So, yes. I am a capitalist; but that doesn't mean capitalism should mean abandoning good sense and reasonable renumeration for output and met goals.

Yes, a number of CEOs are overpaid. Yes, the higher you go, the more hours, in general, you will be expected to work, and the more there is and the more people there are for/to which you will be accountable. But things in the US have gotten quite a bit out of hand--from Hollywood actors and execs to healthcare execs. The levee will inevitably break. Be ready.

 

[Rekt]

My hospital CEO makes over $2m.

Not surprising. The hospital system I worked at, our CEO made 4-5m/year. Just recently he and other board members received a "bonus" of at least six figures, I believe he received seven. But us wanting to hire a single FTE, barely paid more than minimum wage, to decompress the stress on our nurses/techs? Forget it.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

There is whatever the market will bear, and then there is insane greed, which ultimately cripples the entire system. So, yes. I am a capitalist; but that doesn't mean capitalism should mean abandoning good sense and reasonable renumeration for output and met goals.

Yes, a number of CEOs are overpaid. Yes, the higher you go, the more hours, in general, you will be expected to work, and the more there is and the more people there are for/to which you will be accountable. But things in the US have gotten quite a bit out of hand--from Hollywood actors and execs to healthcare execs. The levee will inevitably break. Be ready.

As awful as it is, the reason Europe and Japan are so successful in their large cultural emphasis' on social welfare and restrictive capitalism is because of world war 2's devastation of their nations. The US never was affected and because of that there was never any incentive to come together and fix something. It was more of a, lets pick up where we stopped.

 

[BorntobeDO?]

Not surprising. The hospital system I worked at, our CEO made 4-5m/year. Just recently he and other board members received a "bonus" of at least six figures, I believe he received seven. But us wanting to hire a single FTE, barely paid more than minimum wage, to decompress the stress on our nurses/techs? Forget it.

Exactly. CEO's may have a stressful job, but they are vastly overpaid in many many industries. And not all of them are putting in tons of hours. One Hospital I worked at in particular, had a CEO who was off taking a supplier sponsored 'business trip' to someplace like Arruba while she layed off 500 employees. She was so arrogant she took her daughter (who was a nurse also) and then the daughter posted on facebook a pic of them on the beach with the caption of something to the effect of 'thanks for the meeting.' I worked at this hospital for over a year before I left and I never ever saw that CEO in person (only hospital that has happened). And for the record, she 'resigned' a month after that happened. The hospital in her 2 years there had gone from one of the most profitable to losing money 4 out of the last 5 quarters. Try and convince me she was putting in countless hours.

I would also note that even the 'good' CEO's are putting in many of their hours at extremely lavish party's or meetings in Ski Resorts. I get that they may be doing 'work' there, but its a whole different ballgame when your in Aster, CO skiing between meetings or at a 5 star restaurant having dinner over your meeting. And worse CEO's of hospitals act like they built the place or did something amazing. The entitlement is astounding, but I guess not surprising. I actually admire CEO's from places like Japan who think that its their responsibility to take care of their employees. I believe they have a ratio of 1:20-30 for the pay of the lowest employee to that of the CEO's. In the US we get up to 1: 200-400 in multiple fields (and the majority of these guys aren't founders either, mostly silver spooned types). Thats a recipe for the French Revolution IMO.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

When it comes down to it anything above 1 to 50 is already a bad position for everyone. I mean, like I said again, cut back just half of 1:200 to 1:100 and you've added a bonus to everyone and hired an entire second shift to lessen the loud on the existing workers.

 

[Seth Joo]

I do not see anything changing with CEO pay, by the way university administrator pay has also seen sharp increases over the years, the head of my school earns nearly 1 million a year, while the average faculty member earns less 1/10th that.