Executive Compensation at Northwestern Medicine (2020)

Northwestern Memorial HealthCare (NMH) is commonly known as Northwestern Medicine, and is a non-profit, tax-exempt 501 (c) (3) that provides healthcare in more than 200 locations (including 13 hospitals) in the Chicago metropolitan area. Headquartered in Chicago, NMH is affiliated with Northwestern’s School of Medicine.

Key facts to know about NMH include the following information taken from the Form 990 (2019 for the year ending August 31, 2020):

NMH has $8.1 billion in net assets (up from $6.4 billion in 2018). The $1.7 billion increase is primarily attributed to transfers from affiliated organizations and excess revenue over expenses, all of which means NMH made a lot of money from healthcare over the past few years.

Total revenue was $6.6 billion, primarily from patient care services.

Expenses were $6.2 billion (not including $271 million in depreciation) with four (4) primary expenses:  compensation ($2.6 billion), fees for services ($1.5 billion), medical supplies ($1.3 billion), and office-related expenses ($463 million).

28,681 employees received $2.6 billion in compensation which equates to an average compensation of $91,000 (compared this to an average compensation of $60,000 at NorthShore, a Chicago-based healthcare provider).  4,258 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the 44 most highly compensated employees listed below (note:  many of the employees listed below are physicians whose compensation listed is for clinical and administrative services provided within the NMH.  The majority of the physicians are also compensated by an unrelated organization – Northwestsern University Feinberg School of Medicine through a common paymaster for their academic and research efforts.):

• $7,340,070:  Dean M Harrison
• $2,343,124:  Patrick M McCarthy
• $1,863,830:  John A Orsini
• $1,804,895:  Julie L Creamer
• $1,712,656:  Harish Shownkeen
• $1,564,825:  Mike Eesley
• $1,341,440:  Kevin P Poorten
• $1,311,019:  Thomas J McAfee
• $1,296,630:  Elizabeth Rosenberg
• $1,295,435:  Howard B Chrisman
• $1,247,800:  William Bower
• $1,234,924:  Danae K Prousis
• $1,231,442:  Sharif Zubair
• $1,230,894:  Aaron Bare
• $1,122,670:  Eric G Neilson
• $1,059,129:  Jay Anderson
• $1,058,667:  Brian J Lemon
• $1,047,075:  Patrick Towne
• $1,009,437:  James Adams
• $  984,415:  James Giblin
• $  890,143:  Gary Noskin
• $  858,465:  Terrance D Peabody
• $  $848,123:  Dustin Gent
• $  788,611:  Maureen Bryant
• $  770,133:  Michael Vivoda
• $  745,236:  Anthony Altimari
• $  731,332:  Mathew J Flynn
• $  718,551:  Kevin Bethke
• $  686,715:  Douglas M Young
• $  683,773:  Kevin Most
• $  659,765:  Dolly Devara
• $  621,049:  Connie Falcone
• $  596,617:  Nicholas J Volpe
• $  594,551:  Douglas Vaughan
• $  591,642:  Maureen A Taus
• $  520,497:  Emily J Kozak
• $  505,597:  Leah Hobson
• $  481,686:  Mahesh Ramachandran
• $  438,873:  Amy S Paller
• $  400,368:  Jagdish R Patel
• $  391,591:  Denise Majeski
• $  375,864:  Daniel Bratt
• $  272,672:  Todd Barrowclift
• $  232,574:  Scott Helm

33 of the 44 (75%) most highly compensated employees are male while 11 of the 44 (25%) are female. 8 of the 10 most highly compensated employees are male while 2 are female.

The most highly compensated employee was Dean M Harrison who received more than $7.3 million in compensation in 2020. Over the past 5 years, Mr. Harrison has received $32 million in compensation:

• 2020:  $7,340,070
• 2019:  $7,927,960
• 2018:  $7,091,099
• 2017:  $5,216,245
• 2016:  $4,278,474

NMH paid for health or social club dues or initiation fees. Specifically, NMH paid for country club dues for certain Kishwaukee Health employees .  Employees (Mathew J Flynn and Denise Majeski) of Northwestern Lake Forest Hospital are offered discounted health and fitness club dues at Lake Forest Health and Fitness Institute.

For information on severance payments and non-qualified deferred compensation plans, see the Form 990, Schedule J, Part III, Supplemental Information.