NH reviews nonprofit hospital CEO pay

When New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney announced last summer he objected to the alliance between Catholic Medical Center and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, he also said his office would review the compensation paid the CEO's of the 24 nonprofit hospitals in the state. He noted the total compensation paid to CMC President/CEO Alyson Pitman Giles had more than doubled over four years -- to $1.36 million in 2009 -- and was significantly higher than her peers both in compensation and compared with operating revenues. During his budget address last month, Gov. John Lynch raised the issue of administrators' compensation at the state's nonprofit hospitals, noting the top 200 administrators earned $60 million. Lynch spokesman Colin Manning said the governor used executive compensation as an example to show that cash-generating nonprofits have areas where they can absorb the cuts he proposes. Lynch's budget proposal would reduce the money hospitals receive for uncompensated care by $20 million. Since that time, the House Finance Committee has proposed further reductions that would cut $167 million currently earmarked for uncompensated care payments to the hospitals.