Becker's Hospital Review

76 POPULATION HEALTH 76 CEO/STRATEGY No pay raise for CHS CEO Wayne Smith in 2018 By Alyssa Rege T he board of directors for Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Sys- tems approved compensation arrange- ments for several of its executives Feb. 21, in- cluding CHS President, CEO and Chairman Wayne Smith, who is expected to receive the same base salary he has received since 2015: $1.6 million, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. e board issued compensation arrangements for fiscal year 2018 for five company executives' base salaries last week. e five individuals in- cluded: • Mr. Smith, who will receive a base salary of $1.6 million. • Tim Hingtgen, president and COO, who will receive $900,000. • omas Aaron, executive vice president and CFO, who will receive $675,000. • Benjamin Fordham, executive vice pres- ident, general counsel and assistant sec- retary, who will receive $561,000. • Lynn Simon, MD, president of clini- cal operations and CMO, who will re- ceive $550,000. e board also approved cash incentive com- pensation targets for the five executives. Ac- cording to the SEC filing, Mr. Smith may be eligible for a 235 percent bonus on his base salary if the health system reaches its perfor- mance goals for fiscal year 2018. In addition, each of the five executives will have the opportunity to achieve an additional bonus for completing non-financial perfor- mance improvements. e bonuses range from 10 percent to 30 percent of each individual's base salary depending on their specific posi- tion within the health system. is is the third year running Mr. Smith's base salary has remained at $1.6 million. An SEC filing dated Feb. 24, 2017, revealed Mr. Smith missed his financial and operating targets in 2016, attaining only 13 percent of his per- formance goal, which resulted in a bonus of $640,000. n Mayo Clinic CEO Dr. John Noseworthy to retire at year-end By Anuja Vaidya R ochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic President and CEO John Nosewor- thy, MD, will retire at the end of 2018, ending a nine-year tenure. Dr. Noseworthy has worked at Mayo Clinic for 28 years. A neurologist, he chairs the Editors-in-Chief Committee of the American Academy of Neurolo- gy and serves on its board of directors. He is also the current health governor of the World Economic Forum. During his tenure, Mayo Clinic was ranked No. 1 on U.S. News & World Re- port's list of best hospitals in the nation in 2016 and 2017. Additionally, Sam- uel Di Piazza, chair of Mayo Clinic's board of trustees, noted under Dr. Nose- worthy's leadership Mayo Clinic has experienced high staff satisfaction and high-quality outcomes. "I am honored that the Board of Trustees asked me to serve another year, through the end of 2018," said Dr. Noseworthy in a statement. "2017 was an extraordinary year for Mayo Clinic, and I look forward to working with our leadership team throughout 2018 to continue to strengthen Mayo Clinic and advance our humanitarian mission." n Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel: Are hospitals becoming obsolete? By Leo Vartorella A s many patients continue to receive safe and effective treatment in set- tings outside of the hospital, traditional hospitals will grow smaller and close, argues Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, in an op-ed for The New York Times. Dr. Emanuel is a physician and author perhaps best known as the architect of the ACA. In his op-ed, Dr. Emanuel says hospitalizations have been steadily declining since 1981, which is in part due to the accessibility of services such as oncology treatment and orthopedic surgery at ambulatory surgery centers and outpatient clinics. He attributes this shift partly to technological advances and partly to the increased risk of infections in hospitals. "As these trends accelerate, many of today's hospitals will downsize, merge or close. Others will convert to doctors' offices or outpatient clinics," Dr. Emanuel writes. "Those that remain will be devoted to emergency rooms, high-tech services for premature babies, patients requiring brain surgery and organ transplants, and the like." Dr. Emanuel says healthcare leaders argue this transition away from hospitals will cost valuable front-line jobs, but that jobs created in other clinical spaces will more than make up for these losses. He also calls on federal antitrust reg- ulators to carefully monitor consolidation among health systems, which many claim passes savings on to patients, but which Dr. Emanuel argues actually monopolizes markets. "Instead of trying to forestall the inevitable, we should welcome the advances that are making hospitals less important," Dr. Emanuel writes. "Any change in the healthcare system that saves money and makes patients healthier de- serves to be celebrated." n

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