Hospital administrator salaries: draining the healthcare system?
Well, this conversation from the blogosphere gets my blood boiling, I can tell you! In a recent blog post about the ugly under belly of hospitals, I discussed how administrator salaries decrease hospital resources. Dr. Stanley Feld’s excellent blog post digs even deeper:
Paul Levy CEO of Beth Israel Hospital writes a blog called “Running a Hospital”. He has tried to justify his salary after the Boston Globe published his salary of over 1 million dollars per year…
Remember hospitals such as Beth Israel Hospital in Boston are tax exempt community hospitals because they have this community obligation. These tax subsides and others tax subsides are opaque to the public. However, the public pays for these subsides. They contribute to the hospitals bottom line and Mr. Levy’s bonus.
Linda Halderman M.D. wrote an essay entitled “How Much is Your Doctor Worth?”. It is also worth reading. The subtitle should be, “How Much is Your Doctor paid?” The answer after the long essay is $59.50 for a complicated office visit. [If Levy were a clinician,] he would only have to see 168,067 patients in one year or 744 patients a day to generate a gross revenue of $1,000,000 before expenses.
What is more valuable to the healthcare system? A CEO’s salary based on revenue generated incentives and fund raising or good quality medical care?This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
Medicaid needs to be revised.
Osmin A. Morales,MD
Miami Pain Clinic
7001 SW 61 Ave
Miami,Fl.33143
Phone:305-663-3014
Yeah, the top administrators are probably overpaid but physicians (especially specialists) take home a good paycheck as well (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12939158/). I don’t think you can point the finger at one individual position, instead I would argue that the health care system as a whole in the US has lost in roots in providing a social good. After all, the US does allow the free market to reign supreme in most cases.
Medicaid needs to be supervised strictly by the government.