This is criminal. There really isn't much more to say here. How the CEO of a non-profit hospital can take home a shade over 16 million dollars in a year that they only spend 20 million on charity care is beyond me. The entire point of the tax breaks is to provide care for those who otherwise could not afford it. Its about giving someone the surgery they need instead of amputating a limb, its about taking preventative measures to ensure that cancer does not metastasize. I can assure you that tax breaks are not for marble floors and flat screen televisions. While I'm no doctor, I think its safe to say that never in recorded history has an ear infection been treated with 2 hours of Desperate Housewives, even if it is in precious HD. As a tax payer, I am shocked. As a human being, I am appalled. This needs to stop.
In the 1940s Sen. Harry S. Truman created the preparedness committee that exposed military waste. He traveled the country, showing up at military bases unannounced and demand to see how tax dollars were being spent. It was not the first example of his sense of fiscal accountability and it would follow him to the White House, where he famously displayed the saying "The Buck Stops Here". It would serve us greatly to find our own Trumanesque character to sniff out waste and fraud of this sort because this negligence costs people their lives.
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As I see it, the biggest issue here is not the CEO's take-home pay - hospital administration is a thankless, difficult job with a ton of liability (though, I'm pretty sure that $16m is exorbitant - the CEO of Beth Israel in Boston makes about $1m annually).
What really strikes me (and turns me into a banshee who will lecture anyone within five square miles about access to care and health disparities in the U.S.) is that the total charity care delivered by NW was $30m LESS than the tax savings the hospital received as a result of its non-profit status (bestowed, ostensibly, to lessen the burden of charity care and to offset the “community benefit.”). If the hospital was run in such a manner that they were providing affordable, quality care to all who crossed its threshold, the CEO could have a solid gold toilet for all I’d care (in fact, I’d probably polish if for him).
(Aside: I’m curious about where the money came from for the new birthing wing. I’d be surprised if some or all of those amenities were not provided by a private or family foundation…)
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