By David Robinson, PoughkeepsieJournal.com, May 10
New York’s top hospital executives and doctors received millions in salaries, bonuses and other perks at the same time politically charged fights were raging over reducing health care spending. As patients shouldered rising medical bills, some hospitals used seven-figure payouts to drive executives to hit profit and performance goals, USA TODAY Network found.
Bonuses totaling about $80 million went to 366 hospital officials in the Hudson Valley, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier and other communities across the state in 2016 alone, the most recent data show. That is an average bonus of about $218,000. Much of the money flowed to leaders of New York’s most powerful hospital networks as they consolidated health care wealth, notwithstanding financial hardships facing patients and some smaller community hospitals.
“It’s supposed to be about their health care mission and not supposed to be about the money,” said Doug Sauer, chief executive officer of the New York Council of Nonprofits. “These are charitable organizations. They’re not private business, but there is a point where it begins to look like a for-profit business.” [....]