Becker's Hospital Review

13 CFO / FINANCE Why MaineHealth is opting out of hazard pay to employees By Alia Paavola M aineHealth Portland will not give hazard pay to thousands of its workers amid the COVID-19 pan- demic, according to the Maine Beacon. e health system opted not to give hazard pay to about 1,600 to 1,700 employees who are eligible under a new city ordinance that re- quires employers to pay a $15 minimum wage with time-and-a-half pay during emergencies. According to MaineHealth, the COVID-19 pandemic has already taken a "severe finan- cial toll" on the organization, and the provi- sion to provide emergency pay "would great- ly strain the resources of our not-for-profit healthcare organization." "It is understood that we are here to provide all in our community excellent patient-cen- tered care at all times. Being forced to pro- vide 'emergency pay' to select employees in select locations would greatly undermine this shared mission and value," MaineHealth said in a statement to the Beacon. MaineHealth added that it is following a di- rective by a legal counsel who advised that hazard pay provisions in the voter-mandat- ed minimum wage law won't need to be fol- lowed by employers until 2022. People First Portland, a volunteer organiza- tion that helped get the pay increase on the November ballot, disagreed, saying the lan- guage of the proposed minimum wage ordi- nance stated that hazard pay would go into effect 30 days aer the election. e group said 42 Portland employers, including the University of Southern Maine, already have begun to distribute hazard pay. n 14 highest-paid healthcare jobs in 2021 By Morgan Haefner F ourteen of the 25 highest-paying jobs in 2021 are in health- care, according to U.S. News & World Report's Best Job rankings released Jan. 12. U.S. News identified jobs with the largest projected number and percentage of openings from 2019-29 using data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Researchers then assessed each job's salary figures to compile a list of the highest-paying jobs this year. Here are the 14 healthcare jobs that made the list, ranked by median salary: 1. Anesthesiologist — $208,000 2. Surgeon — $208,000 3. Oral and maxillofacial surgeon — $208,000 4. Obstetrician and gynecologist — $208,000 5. Orthodontist — $208,000 6. Prosthodontist — $208,000 7. Psychiatrist — $208,000 8. Physician — $206,500 9. Pediatrician — $175,310 10. Nurse anesthetist — $174,790 11. Dentist — $155,600 12. Pharmacist — $128,090 13. Podiatrist — $126,240 14. Optometrist — $115,250 n UnitedHealth's Q4 profit drops 38% as COVID-19 costs grow By Morgan Haefner U nitedHealth Group posted a profit of $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020, down about 38 percent from $3.5 billion in the same period of 2019. In its Jan. 20 financial re- lease, UnitedHealth said the declines were expect- ed as care patterns normalized and costs related to COVID-19 care grew. As Americans delayed or deferred elective pro- cedures at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most commercial health insurers saw significant increases in their profits. However, many have ex- pected those increases would shrink as the pan- demic wore on. Despite the drop in fourth-quarter profit, United- Health still saw its revenue grow to $65.5 billion in the last quarter of 2020, up 7.5 percent from $60.9 billion in the same period the previous year, beating analysts' projections. The growth in revenues was led by UnitedHealth's Optum division, which brought in $35.9 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, up from $29.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019. UnitedHealth ended 2020 with a $15.4 billion profit for the full year, up 11.3 percent from $13.8 billion in 2019. n

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