executive compensation

After analyzing the data collected by the Oregon Insurance Division, it appears once again that Mark Ganz, CEO and president of Cambia Health Solutions, the parent company of Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, led the pack. This article also includes detailed information about board member compensation that reached $1.4 million last year.

How well are Oregon’s hospitals meeting local needs? Are they making smart decisions about their money? Today, The Lund Report runs the fourth in a series of stories exploring hospitals across the state. This project begins with a review of more than 50 hospitals licensed to operate in Oregon. These stories look at profit margins, hospital size and reach, and touch briefly on executive compensation. Part 1 profiled Providence Health System’s eight hospitals. Part 2 examined Legacy Health’s four Oregon hospitals. Part 3 visited with hospitals owned by four small chains: Kaiser, Asante Tuality and Salem Health. Today, we dig in to Samaritan Health Services. Click on the accompanying Excel spreadsheets for a look at the data collected: a breakdown of Samaritan's finances and a list of what Samaritan top brass were paid in 2012. After examining the details of every Oregon-licensed hospital, The Lund Report will follow up with stories that dive deep into the facts we’ve uncovered. We’ll ask about profits, compensation and the cost of caring for the poor.

This story has been edited to include the top salaries of Providence executives Greg Van Pelt, Jack Friedman and Shelly Handkins. Why do more and more of Oregon’s hospitals seem to be joining together as conglomerates? Is healthcare reform hurting or helping the profitability of the state’s rural hospitals? Are these institutions taking on too much debt? Any why is it so hard to figure out how much a medical procedure is going to cost? Finding answers to these questions requires first understanding what’s happening inside Oregon’s hospitals – how profitable they are, how many people they serve, and how much they pay their senior executives. Last year, The Lund Report published a multi-part investigation into Oregon’s 26 acute care hospitals. Today, we begin to expand upon that project by digging into additional data sources and looking at all 60 hospitals – both nonprofit and for profit -- in the state.