Novant Health exec pay jumps to $25.2M amid retirement-plan changes

Compensation for Novant Health's top seven executives jumped 200 percent to nearly $25.2 million in 2013, primarily because of changes to the system's executive retirement program. But with the retirement payments excluded, Novant paid those executives nearly $7.7 million in base salaries and incentive compensation — a 9.4 percent drop from the $8.5 million it paid in 2012. The Winston-Salem-based health-care system paid out roughly $17.5 million in retirement benefit payments last year as it ended a program designed to retain and reward Novant's top executives for long-term service. That figure includes all dollars accumulated over the life of the plan.