Nonprofit hospitals targeted on leader pay

The Boston Globe reports:

A leading Republican senator is scrutinizing another group of highly paid executives: leaders of nonprofit hospitals.

Nonprofit hospital presidents earned nearly $500,000 a year on average in salary and other benefits, according to a recent IRS survey of 485 hospitals, and a smaller group more closely reviewed by the IRS had an average salary of $1.4 million. In Boston, home to some of the country's most prominent nonprofit teaching hospitals, executive pay at brand-name institutions typically tops $1 million.

Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said yesterday that he is concerned that such salaries may be too high and that the hospitals' boards of directors are not taking full responsibility for approving them. Grassley said he hopes to introduce legislation, possibly as part of a sweeping healthcare overhaul later this year, that would put more pressure on boards to keep salaries in check.

No word yet on when Senator Grassley is going to look into public sector workers' compensation.