Seventeen executives at Mass General Brigham earned more than $1 million in compensation in 2018, according to the company’s latest public filing, led by Dr. David Torchiana, who stepped down as chief executive the following year.
In his last full year at the state’s largest network of doctors and hospitals, then known as Partners HealthCare, Torchiana received $2.3 million in salary, $700,000 in bonus and incentives, and nearly $960,000 in deferred compensation and other benefits. His total compensation was just under $4 million, down from $6.1 million in 2017. Despite the decline, he was the highest-paid executive among the state’s health networks and hospitals in 2018.
Nonprofit organizations, including hospitals, are required to detail their pay packages as part of their Form 990 filings with the Internal Revenue Service, but the figures lag by nearly two years. The nonprofits must list compensation for officers, directors, trustees, key employees, and their highest-paid employees.
While the hospital compensation figures are from two years ago, they’ve been released amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trustees defend the high salaries of their CEOs, saying they run billion-dollar organizations in a complex industry. But the contrast with front-line workers is especially stark this year.
“Do these people do as much to advance the health, medical security, and well-being as the equivalent number of nurses their pay represents?” said Alan Sager, a professor and director of the Health Reform Program at the Boston University School of Public Health. “I doubt it.”
Torchiana retired amid concerns about his efforts to expand and reevaluate the direction of the organization and its flagship teaching hospitals. He was succeeded in June 2019 by Dr. Anne Klibanski, who had been chief academic officer of the company. She earned $1.14 million in the year before her promotion.
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Peter Markell, Mass General Brigham’s chief financial officer, and John Barker, chief investment officer, were each paid $2.9 million in 2018. Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received $2.4 million, as did her counterpart at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Peter Slavin.
At Beth Israel Lahey Health, Mass General Brigham’s largest rival, Dr. Kevin Tabb earned $1.9 million in 2018 as chief executive. Dr. Howard Grant,who ran Lahey Health before it merged with Beth Israel Deaconess, retired that year and was paid $4.7 million, mostly in retirement and other benefits.
Here is a rundown of the 2018 compensation for the chiefs of the state’s other large health networks:
- Boston Children’s Hospital, Sandra Fenwick, $2.7 million
- Boston Medical Center, Kate Walsh, $2.6 million
- UMass Memorial Health Care, Dr. Eric Dickson, $2.4 million
- Baystate Health, Dr. Mark Keroack, $2.1 million
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Dr. Laurie Glimcher, $1.7 million
- Wellforce, Dr. Normand Deschene (retired in 2018), $1.7 million
And here are the other top-paid hospital executives (not including medical department heads) at the state’s major nonprofit hospitals:
Mass General Brigham
- John Fernandez, president, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, $2.7 million (includes $1 million in deferred compensation reported in previous years)
- Dr. Gregg Meyer, senior vice president of quality and safety, MGH, $2.1 million
- Dr. Ron Walls, chief operating officer, Brigham and Women’s, $1.7 million
- Lynn Malloy Stofer, president, Partners Community Physicians Organization, $1.2 million
- Sally Mason Boemer, senior vice president of finance, MGH, $1.1 million
- Christopher Dunleavy, chief financial officer, Brigham and Women’s, $1.1 million
- Gregory J. Walker, CEO, Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, $1.1 million
- Dr. Timothy Ferris, CEO, Mass. General Physicians Organization, $1.1 million
- Dr. Allen Smith, president, Brigham and Women’s Physician Organization, $1 million
- Dr. Michael Jaff, president, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, $1 million
- Dr. Andrew Warshaw, physician director for network development, $1 million
Baystate Health
- Dennis Chalke, chief financial officer (retired in 2020), $1 million
Beth Israel Lahey Health
- Patricia Hannon, CEO (retired in 2018), New England Baptist Hospital, $4 million
- Timothy O’Connor, chief financial officer (retired in 2019), Lahey Health, $1.3 million
Boston Children’s Hospital
- Dr. Kevin Churchwell, president, $1.6 million
- Doug Vanderslice, chief financial officer, $1.6 million
Boston Medical Center
- Alastair Bell, chief operating officer, $1.2 million
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Dr. Edward Benz Jr., CEO emeritus, principal investigator of Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, $1.6 million
UMass Memorial Health Care
- Sergio Melgar, chief financial officer, $1.3 million
- Douglas Brown, president, UMass Memorial Community Hospitals, $1.1 million
Wellforce
- Dr. Michael Wagner, chief physician executive, $1.6 million
- Joseph White, CEO, Lowell General Hospital, $1.25 million
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated Dr. Andrew Warshaw’s salaried position at Mass. General Hospital. In 2018, he was a physician director for network development. His role as director of the Andrew L. Warshaw Institute for Pancreatic Cancer is unpaid.
Larry Edelman can be reached at larry.edelman@globe.com.