UNC Health Care eliminates bonuses for key executives

May 23, 2007 

UNC Health Care eliminates bonuses for key executives

CHAPEL HILL – The UNC Health Care System board of directors will no longer offer performance-based bonuses to the system’s key leaders and will reduce the level of bonuses that can be earned by other system executives. The board acted Monday (May 21) on the recommendation of UNC Health Care CEO William L. Roper, M.D., M.P.H., whose own bonus was among those eliminated.
     
UNC President Erskine Bowles, a member of the health care system board, praised the decision. “I commend the board for making this fundamental change, which I have encouraged since we began working to address community concerns raised last summer,” Bowles said.
     
“The UNC Health Care System must remain the state’s health care safety net, while attracting and retaining the management team necessary to operate a very complex system,” added UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor James Moeser.
     
“We embrace this change in compensation in the same manner as our recent efforts to improve access, care and financial assistance for our patients,” Roper said. “These changes reflect our commitment to maintaining the public confidence in UNC Health Care’s service to its mission and the people of our state.”
     
In addition to Roper, executives who will no longer be eligible for Health Care System performance-based bonuses include:

• Margaret Dardess, senior counselor for the dean’s office of the UNC School of Medicine
• Kevin FitzGerald, executive associate dean for finance and administration of the UNC School of Medicine
• Brian Goldstein, M.D., M.B.A., UNC Hospitals’ chief of staff
• Gary Park, president of UNC Hospitals
• Etta Pisano, M.D., vice dean for academic affairs of the UNC School of Medicine
• Marschall Runge, M.D., Ph.D., vice dean for clinical affairs of the UNC School of Medicine
• Al Stewart, chief financial officer of UNC Health Care

     
For the current fiscal year, the board also scaled back the maximum bonus potential for additional senior executives from 30 percent to 10 percent. This new level is consistent with the incentive compensation that can be earned by other managers in UNC Health Care based on reaching the goals of quality, patient and employee satisfaction (50 percent evaluation weight) and financial performance (the other 50 percent). Since this policy change will take effect before the end of the fiscal year, base salaries will be adjusted to assure that the total 2007 compensation of affected executives will be comparable to previous years.
     
Recommendations for executive compensation increases will continue to be made by Roper and other key leaders in consultation with the board’s Compensation Committee. Individual compensation adjustments will be based on market comparisons to similar positions within peer organizations, as well as on job performance. Roper’s own compensation will be set by the UNC Board of Governors, on the recommendation of Bowles, after consultation with Moeser and the Health Care System board.
     
“We continually benchmark our compensation structure against other similar organizations, said William McCoy, board chair. “It is important to know that the level of compensation at UNC Health Care is appropriate in comparison to other like institutions.

Media contact: Lynn Wooten, (919) 966-6046 or lwooten@unch.unc.edu


ABOUT UNC HEALTH CARE
The UNC Health Care System is a not-for-profit integrated health care system owned by the state of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill. It exists to further the teaching mission of the University of North Carolina and to provide state-of-the-art patient care. UNC Health Care is comprised of UNC Hospitals, ranked consistently among the best medical centers in the country; the UNC School of Medicine, a nationally eminent research institution; community practices; home health and hospice services in seven central North Carolina counties; and Rex Healthcare and its provider network in Wake County.