An Introduction To Healthcare Compensation News

Everyone wants to know what everyone else is paid.

That could be a good enough reason on its own to launch Healthcare Compensation News. However, there are far more compelling reasons to begin a monthly publication following the sector's pay practices.

First, the majority of hospitals remain not-for-profit institutions, often with a charitable mission and even a religious orientation. Is it appropriate for executive pay at such facilities to be into the seven figures (and occasionally eight figures)? This publication will delve into this issue.

The cost of healthcare delivery, after being mostly flat during the tough years of the Great Recession, has begun to rise again. Even during a period when cost increases were the lowest ever recorded, healthcare delivery in the United States runs about twice as much as other industrial countries, while life expectancies trail behind. Should large compensation packages be the norm, or are they the product of a healthcare system far more dependent on money changing hands than any other in the industrialized world?

And, despite the introduction of the Affordable Care Act, medical costs are expected to continue to be the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in this country, as both private and even some public payers relentlessly shift costs to consumers, while price transparency is only very gradually – if not grudgingly – introduced into the hospital and other healthcare settings. This has led to discussion of having credit bureaus treat medical debt differently from other forms of debt, but that has yet to occur, and it would likely take years for that to happen.

Some of the best reporting by Payers & Providers has been data-driven, and Healthcare Compensation News itself will be primarily a data-driven enterprise. It will evolve over the coming months to cover compensation and related issues more effectively. We will not only focus on hospitals, but compensation trends and practices at health plans, community clinics, trade associations and other operations relevant to healthcare delivery.

For now, we will focus on pay practices as they were in 2011 and 2010, as tax returns from those years are more readily available in bulk than the 2012 returns, which are just becoming available. But as this fledgling publication becomes more established and staff resources become more readily available, expect Healthcare Compensation News to deliver more information in a more timely manner.

We want to hear from you readers. What do you want Healthcare Compensation News to cover? Are there experts we should be speaking with? Are there graphics we should be sharing with you. Nothing is written in stone here, and as a result, we want your input.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at 877-248-2360, extension 1, or at editor@payersandproviders.com.

Thank you all for your attention, and I wish you happy reading!

Yours,

Ron Shinkman

Editor