Aetna's Mark Bertolini highest paid health insurance CEO at $27.9M

Aetna compensated CEO Mark Bertolini to the tune of $27.9 million last year, mostly due to gains on stock options Aetna gave him 10 years ago that he exercised in 2015, according to a Friday SEC filing obtained by the Hartford Courant.

Bertolini is now the highest-earning CEO among the five largest health insurers. Previously CEO pay had topped out at $17.3 million. Bertolini netted $24.8 million exercising stock options and realizing gains on restricted stock, according to the Courant. An annual company proxy statement details that Bertolini owns 1,162,540 exercisable options, some of which were set to expire in 2016.

Bertolini’s executive earnings have almost doubled since 2014, when he grossed CEO $15 million. Bertolini earned a bonus worth 300 percent of his annual base salary of $1,034,483, according to an Aetna filing with the SEC.

Bertolini has 700,000 unexercisable options in his back pocket.The options set to expire in 2023 have a strike price of $64.25, according to the proxy statement.

 

Here’s the Hartford Courant’s report

Read Aetna’s 2016 proxy statement