Per the Northern Inyo Healthcare District’s contract with Interim CEO Chad Chadwick: “In consideration for all services to be performed by Chadwick, the District agrees to pay Chadwick base compensation at a rate of Seven Thousand Dollars ($7,000) per week (or pro rata for any partial week worked).” 

$7,000 a week. 

About $364,000 a year. 

To do these duties. Which aren’t all of them.

“To carry out all policies established by the Board of Directors and medical staff of HOSPITAL, in conjunction with the Chief of Staff.” 

“To prepare an annual budget showing the expected receipts and expenditures as required by the Board of Directors and prepare the DISTRICT forecasts.” 

“To supervise all business affairs and insure (sic) that all funds are collected and expended to the best possible advantage of the DISTRICT.” 

“To submit not less than monthly to the Board of Directors or its authorized committees or officers reports showing the professional service and financial activities of the DISTRICT and to prepare and submit such special reports from time to time as may be required or requested by the Board of Directors.”

The full list of duties – 19 of them – can be found inside the complete agenda packet of the NIH’s October 19th, 2022 board meeting at www.nih.org/documents/2022. 

To see whether this type of compensation was normal, I reached out to Barbara Laughon, the Northern Inyo Healthcare District’s Manager of Marketing, Communication, and Strategy. 

I’d hoped to reach the board members, but their contact information was not listed on the NIH site. Rather, there was a “Contact Us” form that led me to Laughon. 

No Board members deigned to engage.

“I do have some information from our Human Resources department,” wrote Laughon in an email. “It appears Mr. Chadwick is within market. If we were to hire a permanent CEO with Mr. Chadwick’s experience, they would be at the max of the scale which is $8,195 weekly.” 

Laughon attached a pay scale table that Alison Murray, Director of Human Resources, prepared. See bottom of page.

Chadwick also gets reimbursed for expenses like Car Rentals ($1,900 a month) and a Monthly Housing Expense subsidy at $3,000 a month “plus associated reasonable expenses incurred for housing utilities and cable service.” 

Chadwick’s resume is long. President of a Health Care Advising company that shares his name, a board of directors member for UrgentPoint Urgent Care and a healthcare Investment company, the executive director of the Wellness and Education Board of Central Oregon, COO of National Rural Accountable Care Consortium, CEO of Hi Desert Medical Center, CEO of Natividad Medical Center, CEO of Sierra Vista Regional MEdical Center, Assistant Professor at University or Oregon, CEO of French Hospital Medical Center / Arroyo Grande Community Hospital. 

He’s been CEO’ing since 1991. That’s a whole lot of experience. 

Still, isn’t that a whole lot of cash for the interim CEO of a health care district? According to transparentcalifornia.com, the CEO of the Desert Healthcare District – Conrado Barzaga – was salaried at $231,194 a year in 2021. Thomas Bakaly, CEO of Beach Cities Health District, got paid just under $263,000 in 2021. Steven Hannah, CEO of San Benito Health Care District, made around $353,500 in 2021. 

On the other end of the spectrum, Antelope Valley Healthcare District CEO Edward Mirzabegian got paid $652,251 a year. 

Northern Inyo Healthcare District’s Chief Executive Officer Compensation Philosophy sheds some light on their thinking:

“The Board of Directors (BOD) of Northern Inyo Healthcare District (NIHD), in a desire to attract, retain and motivate the senior hospital executive who reflects the values of our District and community, has adopted a philosophy in awarding compensation to the Hospital Chief Executive Officer (CEO).” 

“The CEO must be able to lead our hospital in the delivery of excellent patient care and service. In part, this is accomplished by offering a remuneration package that is in line with the market as defined by peer comparable hospitals in size, mission, scope of operations and locale. Therefore the BOD uses the Allied for Health Services Executive Compensation Report for District employee pay range determination. Within that range, which is reviewed and reset every two years, the BOD sets compensation based upon training, experience, successes, and impact as measured against established goals for the organization and the senior executive.” 

“At least once a year the BOD assesses the performance of the CEO in achieving set performance goals. Based upon the results of the review, a subcommittee, composed of two (2) Board members, recommends any pay rate adjustment to be voted on. The compensation may be adjusted but will never exceed the upper limit of the pay range determined in the Allied For Health Executive Compensation Report. Furthermore, the benefits package will be consistent with what is offered to District employees.”

He could always take a page out of Matthew Matthiessen’s playbook – CEO of John C. Fremont Healthcare District in Mariposa, Calif. – and take a voluntary, 20% pay cut, which Fremont did in 2021 to “help offset the financial fallout from the pandemic,” per Kelly Gooch’s article in Becker’s Hospital Review, “California hospital CEO takes voluntary pay cut.” 

But who wants to take a pay cut?