Community Health Systems CEO Tim Hingtgen pulled in just over $9.5 million in total compensation during 2021, a roughly 50% increase over the previous year when he was still serving as the for-profit system’s president and chief operating officer, according to documents recently filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Hingtgen joined Community Health Systems in 2008 and received numerous promotions with increasing levels of responsibility, including division president and executive vice president of operations. Immediately prior to taking on the CEO role, Hingtgen had served as president and chief operating officer since 2016, as well as a member of the company’s board since 2017.
Hingtgen’s $9.5 million take-home is a slight increase over the $9.1 million 2020 salary of Wayne Smith, who had served in the top role since 1997 and transitioned to the executive chairman position last year. His salary for this year came to just over $8 million, according to the filing.
Total 2021 compensations for other CHS leaders listed in Thursday’s filing included $5.9 million for President and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Hammons, $4.5 million for President of Clinical Operations and Chief Medical Officer Lynn Simon, M.D., and $3.3 million for Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Assistant Secretary Benjamin Fordham.
Each of these totals are an increase over what the three executives brought home the previous year.
Hingtgen’s $9.5 million puts him well behind fellow first-year CEO Saum Sutaria, M.D., who collected $21.2 million leading Tenet Healthcare, and HCA Healthcare CEO Samuel Hazen, whose $20.6 million was well below the previous year’s $30.4 billion.
United Health Services, the country’s other major for-profit health system, has not yet filed its proxy statement with 2021 executive compensation.
Hingtgen’s compensation breaks down into a $1.2 million base salary, $2.6 million in restricted stock awards, $622,000 in option awards and $3.5 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation. He also saw a change in pension value and non-qualified deferred compensation earnings of $1.5 million and about $37,000 in other compensation.
CHS reported $368 million in net income in 2021 and, as of Dec. 31, employed roughly 66,000 people.
Median compensation for these employees, including health and welfare benefits, was $60,868, representing a 157:1 CEO to median employee pay ratio, according to the filing.