The Lown Institute's Dr. Vikas Saini and Ms. Judith Garber Discuss Nonprofit Hospital CEO Compensation (March 7th)

Listeners of this podcast are aware the US suffers from extreme wealth and income inequality.  (E.g., see my “The Unrecognized Tragedy of Working Class Immiseration” STAT News essay posted here on December 31st.)  Concerning CEO compensation in the health care industry, the highest ten paid CEO’s in 2020 were paid an average of $20 million.  By comparison, according to 2020 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary for a BS nurse is $80,000.    

During this 33 minute conversation Dr. Saini and Ms. Garber discuss CEO bonuses during the pandemic, discuss generally CEO compensation as an outlier in the nonprofit sector, discuss the substance of their research findings including what explains CEO compensation and conclude by discussing what criteria should be used in calculating CEO compensation.   

Dr. Vikas Saini, a clinical cardiologist, is President of the Lown Institute.   Previously he has taught and conducted research at Harvard.   Prior still he was in private practice for over 15 years on Cape Cod where he also founded Aspect Medical Systems.  Dr. Saini is an expert o optimal medical management of cardiologic conditions, medical overuse, hospital performance and evaluation.  He has presented his research at professional meetings around the world. 

Judith Garber is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Lown Institute.  She joined the Lown team in 2016, after receiving her Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School of Social Policy.  She previously worked at the  Aspen  Aspen Institute Financial Security Program, the Midas Collaborative, and Pearson Education.   She has a BA in American Studies and Political Science from Rutgers University.   

Saini and Garber's article, "Nonprofit Hospital CEO Compensation: How Much Is Enough? "  It's at: https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/forefront.20220208.925255.   

Information on the Lown Institute is at: https://lowninstitute.org/.    

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