CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Unlike steps taken by administrators at Thomas Memorial Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center executives say pay cuts are currently not an option in the wake of recent efforts to reduce the health system's budget.
CAMC's top 16 executives received about $4.89 million in combined salaries in 2009 - an increase of about 3 percent from 2008, according to state Health Care Authority filings.
The health system's executives also received about $2.3 million in payouts in 2009, after cashing in retirement and deferred compensation packages, state records show.
The supplemental executive retirement plan -- also known as SERPs -- provides benefits above those covered by traditional IRA and 401(k) retirement plans.
Hospital executives began cashing out their deferred compensation plans in 2008, following a change in IRS regulations and at the recommendation of a health-system consultant, according to previously reported statements.
The supplemental payout is in addition to executives' salary, and is based on salary and years of service.
Larry Hudson, CAMC's chief financial officer said 2009 marked the last year employees could receive a payout.
Hudson said all CAMC employees received at least a 2 percent pay increase in 2009.
Some executive salaries listed include payments from 401(k) and similar plans, and appear in the Health Care Authority filings to have received more than 2 percent, Hudson said.
CAMC has begun reducing jobs, leaving open positions unfilled and cutting hours and overtime to trim about $15 million in labor costs from the health system's budget by the end of 2011, hospital administrators said last week.
Employee salary and benefits make up about 50 percent of CAMC's budget. The projected labor cuts will make up about 1.8 percent of CAMC's operating budget, and about 4 percent of its annual employee costs.
CAMC also needs to cut about $10 million in supplies from its projected $825 million budget.
In August, Thomas Memorial Hospital announced that it was cutting administrators' salaries -- 10 percent for senior executives and 5 percent for department heads -- curbing overtime and eliminating merit pay increases, in an effort to cut about $3 million out of the hospital's $150 million budget.
CAMC President and CEO David Ramsey collected a $773,236 salary last year, an increase of more than $52,800 from 2008.
Ramsey also received an additional $39,991 in deferred compensation - income earned from previous years and paid in a lump sum.
He received a payout of $536,036 in 2008.
Hudson earned $446,373 in 2009, an increase of more than $64,700 from the previous year.
Hudson also received $835,466 in 2009 from the hospital's deferred compensation and supplemental executive retirement plans, according to filings.
He received $1.17 million in deferred compensation in 2008.
Sharon Hall, president of CAMC Health Education and Research Institute, also cashed out more than $1.3 million in deferred compensation and supplemental executive retirement plans in 2009.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Unlike steps taken by administrators at Thomas Memorial Hospital, Charleston Area Medical Center executives say pay cuts are currently not an option in the wake of recent efforts to reduce the health system's budget.
CAMC's top 16 executives received about $4.89 million in combined salaries in 2009 - an increase of about 3 percent from 2008, according to state Health Care Authority filings.
The health system's executives also received about $2.3 million in payouts in 2009, after cashing in retirement and deferred compensation packages, state records show.
The supplemental executive retirement plan -- also known as SERPs -- provides benefits above those covered by traditional IRA and 401(k) retirement plans.
Hospital executives began cashing out their deferred compensation plans in 2008, following a change in IRS regulations and at the recommendation of a health-system consultant, according to previously reported statements.
The supplemental payout is in addition to executives' salary, and is based on salary and years of service.
Larry Hudson, CAMC's chief financial officer said 2009 marked the last year employees could receive a payout.
Hudson said all CAMC employees received at least a 2 percent pay increase in 2009.
Some executive salaries listed include payments from 401(k) and similar plans, and appear in the Health Care Authority filings to have received more than 2 percent, Hudson said.
CAMC has begun reducing jobs, leaving open positions unfilled and cutting hours and overtime to trim about $15 million in labor costs from the health system's budget by the end of 2011, hospital administrators said last week.
Employee salary and benefits make up about 50 percent of CAMC's budget. The projected labor cuts will make up about 1.8 percent of CAMC's operating budget, and about 4 percent of its annual employee costs.
CAMC also needs to cut about $10 million in supplies from its projected $825 million budget.
In August, Thomas Memorial Hospital announced that it was cutting administrators' salaries -- 10 percent for senior executives and 5 percent for department heads -- curbing overtime and eliminating merit pay increases, in an effort to cut about $3 million out of the hospital's $150 million budget.
CAMC President and CEO David Ramsey collected a $773,236 salary last year, an increase of more than $52,800 from 2008.
Ramsey also received an additional $39,991 in deferred compensation - income earned from previous years and paid in a lump sum.
He received a payout of $536,036 in 2008.
Hudson earned $446,373 in 2009, an increase of more than $64,700 from the previous year.
Hudson also received $835,466 in 2009 from the hospital's deferred compensation and supplemental executive retirement plans, according to filings.
He received $1.17 million in deferred compensation in 2008.
Sharon Hall, president of CAMC Health Education and Research Institute, also cashed out more than $1.3 million in deferred compensation and supplemental executive retirement plans in 2009.
Hall has been an employee of CAMC for 30 years, and the payout included deferred compensation from 2001 and 2004-07, in addition to "wages she had set aside" as part of the supplemental executive retirement plan, said CAMC spokesperson Dale Witte.
Fourteen top administrators received pay increases in 2009 ranging from about $57 to more than $67,000, according to a Health Care Authority filing.
CAMC executive salaries are within the 50th percentile of comparable health systems nationally, Hudson said.
A compensation committee through CAMC's board of trustees decides salaries based on recommendations from an outside consultant, Hudson said.
Employee salaries must stay on par with other national hospitals in order to remain competitive, he said.
"When you recruit nationally," he said, "you have to deal on a national level for access to personnel."
Hudson said there is no talk of executive or employee pay cuts.
Reach Veronica Nett at veroni...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5113.
2009 CAMC salaries
David Ramsey, president and CEO, $773,236
Dr. Glenn Crotty, chief operating officer, $488,310
Larry Hudson, chief financial officer, $446,373
Elizabeth Spangler, vice president of medical services, $349,771
William Adams, vice president of Memorial Hospital, $332,556
Marshall McCullen Jr., general counsel, $276,274
Dale Wood, vice president of quality, $285,144
Michael Williams, vice president of CAMC General Hospital, $268,969
Lynn Brookshire, chief information officer, $251,940
Beth Samples, vice president of human resources, $230,748
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