CEO Pay at Legacy Emanuel
Kari Chisholm
So, on Thursday afternoon, there's going to be a rally for the workers of Legacy Emanuel hospital - who are fighting for a fair contract and a fair pay increase this year.
The hospital is offering the workers 2%. But get this - they're giving Robert Pallari, the Legacy HealthSystem CEO, a 58% raise.
As I understand it, if you simply took that 58% raise for the top dog - and spread it out among the 389 union members (SEIU 49) - that would translate to a 10% raise for each worker.
Outrageous.
Even the Business Journal reports that his salary is seen as a bit high.
Pallari's salary -- which at about $1.4 million is the top of the scale for local health care executives -- has also been a root of tension among physicians and other members of the community.
Oh, and incidentally, there's no reason to pay him that much to stick around - he's already announced his retirement.
At age 56.
Yeah.
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Jun 28, '05
Profits make perfect! I'm sure there is going to be a trickle happenening someday.
Who are the people who condone this obscene gesture?
8:38 a.m.
Jun 28, '05
Wait -- wasn't the problem with health care spending too many frivolous lawsuits? My head hurts... I'm confused.
Jun 28, '05
Yeah, without all those fivolous lawsuits, health care CEOs could retire with some dignity at age 55, instead of being forced to work well into their late 50s.
Jun 28, '05
I wonder what he knows ...
Honestly, how do these people sleep at night?
Jun 28, '05
like babes...being evil is easy.
Jun 28, '05
There are a number of over paid and unethical administrators at Legacy. I worked there for 7 and 1/2 years in Research and resigned after I was treated with disrespect after I objected to cronyism in the awarding of the Wheeler Fellowships for summer research at Legacy Research. I detailed my reasons for resigning as attachments to my official Legacy resignation forms and discovered a couple of weeks later that the documents I submitted had been intercepted by the administrators of Legacy Research - Melerango and Schneiderman and that bogus resignation documents were submitted in their place that misrepresented my reason for resigning! This admisistrative fraud was reported to Palleri and several of his minions, who did nothing.
If you are an administrator at Legacy, you get a very high salary, there are no annual evaluations of your performance by people who work under you, and you can get a free pass by Palleri if you act unethically.
9:35 p.m.
Jun 28, '05
What the hell does he think he's running, a local credit union?
Jun 29, '05
A little over a year ago, my wife and I had a baby at Legacy. This was not what we had intended; our daughter snuck into the world a bit early, which meant that our switch to Kaiser hadn't yet occurred. Based on a summary of my current health benefits and the speedy, speedy delivery of our daughter (under three hours), we could have done the entire birth at Kaiser for a few hundred tops; that same birth at Legacy? It put us back a couple thousand. Making the whole thing worse, while the birth was in March, we were still getting bills - for an entirely routine birth - in November.
You'd think that an "efficient, for-profit" system would somehow manage to bill its clients in a timely fashion, but literally eight months on we were still receiving bills, and whopping ones at that. When I complained to the billing department they described a system in total disarray.
Now, in defense of Legacy, the nurses and midwives who tended our birth and the day after were great, really. But, the administrative side....holy moly.
So, let's tally this: I have a horrible experience at Legacy and most of that is down to gross incompetence on the administrative side. And this asshole is getting a great big raise and $1.4 million per year? Based on my experience 1) Pallari should be out of a job, and, 2) Kaiser is beating their asses like a gong.
Jun 29, '05
Mr. Bennett: May I suggest that you post your letter here in its entirety. At least your voice can be heard someplace, and perhaps a greater ground swell might be created.
Mr. Bull, you note that the hospital is an "efficient, for profit" organization but was not billing you timely. At the rate of extortion by the hospital, compared to Kaiser, I would say they profited quite efficiently, and Robert Pallari would vouch for that. Argumentatively, one might say Kaiser would have sent all the bills within say, 4 weeks, but they would have left hundreds of dollars on the table.
Jun 29, '05
I don't dispute your comments, Gregor. But it's a sad, sick day when a hospital's primary mission is profitability...really, throw away all the crap Pallari spouts in his link about "helping the poor." He complains about Kaiser not doing enough, but I'd say their doing a hell of a lot more overall by keeping their prices more accessible in general terms.
Jun 30, '05
Jeff- My comments were seething with sarcasm. I agree that this is a sad, sick day. I am quite bitter that what ought to be social service has become self-service for people like Pallari. I believe that when Dubya talks about an ownership society, his is talking about exactly this. Society being owned by Board members and CEOs, where organizations that ought to be non-profit and serving the public good, become owned by the hyper-rich in everything but name.
Jun 30, '05