Vanguard CEO compensation jumps 54%

Despite public scrutiny of executive pay amid rising healthcare costs, the CEO and board chairman of Vanguard Health Systems saw his total compensation rise by 54 percent to $3.7 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2011, compared to 2.4 million in 2010, according to information the Nashville, Tenn. system filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Although budget limitations kept his base salary rate fixed at $1.1 million, Charles Martin Jr. received bonuses and non-equity incentive plan compensation totaling $2.6 million, in part for meeting adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) targets.

Martin's "other compensation" of $14,208 accounted for corporate aircraft use, as well as a matching 401(k) contribution, the company states in its definitive proxy statement.

Meanwhile, the chief exec of South Florida's Jackson Health System, which announced more than 1,000 layoffs last month, will donate his entire bonus to the Jackson Memorial Foundation if his staffing adjustments achieve savings, CEO Charles Migoya wrote in a Miami Herald opinion.

"The money will be set aside for the renovation of our labor and delivery rooms--a crucial project that will bring those facilities up to community standards, make Jackson's maternity ward more family-friendly, and ultimately rebuild the great service where my own son was born 33 years ago," Migoya wrote.

He also noted that his plan creates 350 new part-time flexible staffing positions at Jackson Health to adjust for daily changes in volume and type of patients.

To learn more:
- here's the document filed with the SEC
- read the Miami Herald op-ed