Westchester Medical Center paid 18 employees $4.6 million in bonuses from 2013 through 2015, and the Valhalla, N.Y.-based system failed to keep sufficient records for why it paid many of those bonuses, according to The Journal News, which cites a report by New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's office.
Some of the largest bonuses paid by the system during the three-year period, such as payments to WMC's CEO and CFO, followed state regulations. However, other executives who received bonuses didn't have contracts that laid out bonus criteria, according to the report. WMC also failed to provide state auditors with written performance evaluations that would justify the bonuses for any senior managers.
WMC disagreed with most of the state auditors' findings. "[WMC] maintains that its total compensation approach and salary withhold process are consistent with the incentive compensation guidelines set forth in the guidance upon which [the comptroller's office] relies," WMC stated in the report from the comptroller's office, according to The Journal News.
However, the hospital is changing its process. "The WMC Board of Directors has developed a compensation structure in which all employees are compensated at market rates," said WMC in a statement. "The WMC compensation process that was reviewed in the comptroller's audit differs from what his office recommends, so we are modifying our process to be consistent with the comptroller's recommendation."
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