California's healthcare system may be sick, but the pay for hospital executives is in tip-top shape. A new survey finds more than one in five CEOs at non-profit hospitals in California make more than $1 million a year.
How about $7.7 million a year? That's what Kaiser Permanente's CEO George Halvorson made in 2010.
Halvorson earned the top spot in the survey conducted by the publication Pay & Providers.
Palomar Health's Michael Covert oversees two hospitals in San Diego County. He was the highest paid public hospital district executive in the state. He made just over $1 million in 2010.
The survey doesn't cover for-profit hospital pay. But compensation experts say CEOs in that sector make even more money than their non-profit counterparts. That suggests there could be many other hospital officials in California who are earning seven-figures a year.
