Managed Care Plans Pay Top Salaries

May 27, 2011 – Gov. John Kitzhaber wants to trim as much waste out of Oregon’s Medicaid program as possible. So far the discussion has not extended, however, to tamping down on executive salaries or the type of profitable buy-outs like the one that occurred in Central Oregon last year.

 

Executives for the for-profit Clear One Health Plans, which was sold last year to the non-profit PacificSource, topped the list of highest paid executives to Medicaid managed care plans last year, based on a document obtained by The Lund Report.

 

Clear One operated a Medicaid and Medicare Advantage health plan, which goes by the name Central Oregon Independent Health Services. A group of hospitals and several physician groups owned the company before PacificSource acquired it for $46 million early last year.

 

Patricia Gibford, CEO and President earned nearly $660,000 last year, partly in deferred compensation from the sale of personal stock. Gunnar Hansen and Randy Cline each took home more than $400,000, also as part of a stock deal.

 

The hospitals were also big winners. St. Charles Medical Center in Bend earned $9.7 million on the deal.

 

David Ford, president of CareOregon, the largest managed care organization in the state received $367,000 in total compensation last year, followed by Terry Coplin who runs the Lane Independent Physicians Association, better known as LIPA, who earned $330,000.

 

The state will likely trim anywhere from about $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion from medical assistance programs in the next biennium, while it redefines the type of health plans it wants to administer the next incarnation of the state’s Medicaid program.

 

 

For a complete chart of executive compensation from 2010 click here.

 

For related stories on Clear One click here.

 

For related stories on OHP changes click here.