UnitedHealth CEO Continues to Prosper While His Company's Behavior Appears to Contradict its Mission Statement

Tis spring, the season in the US for legal settlements, government findings, and proxy statements revealing executive compensation.  Therefore, maybe there should be no surprise that we are seeing a series of cases in which health care corporate leaders continue to enrich themselves while their organizations' behavior raises ethical questions.Following on the Amgen example, we now present the latest UnitedHealth example (in a post organized similarly.)The CEO Gets RicherLast week, the Associated Press (via the Washington Post) summarized UnitedHealth CEO Stephen J Hemsley's growing pile of money:UnitedHealth Group Inc. kept CEO Stephen J. Hemsley’s salary stable in 2012 but bumped up his total compensation for a year in which the nation’s largest health insurer grew earnings and enrollment and launched a major acquisition.The Minnetonka, Minn., insurer gave its top executive a compensation package valued at about $13.9 million last year, according to the company’s proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. That’s up 4 percent from the $13.4 million total he received last year.Hemsley, 60, received a $1.3 million annual salary in 2012, like he has the past several years. He also received $7 million in stock awards, which is the same total as 2011. But his performance-based bonus climbed 7 percent to $5.3 million, and he received $287,443 in other compensation, up from $154,804 in 2011.Other compensation included savings plan...
Source: Health Care Renewal - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Tags: UnitedHealth quality executive compensation managed care organizations mission-hostile management legal settlements Source Type: blogs