Mass General Brigham attending and resident physicians picketed March 20 outside Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston in support of legislation that would cap hospital CEO pay, according to a news release shared with Becker’s by the Committee of Interns and Residents, a local of the Service Employees International Union.
The union reported that more than 300 physicians and allies gathered outside MGH and BWH. According to The Boston Globe, about 50 Mass General Brigham residents and attending physicians picketed in front of MGH.
The picketing was in support of legislative proposals S.899 and H.1398, which would cap the total annual compensation of CEOs at state-funded hospitals to no more than 50 times the minimum compensation paid at the facility. Institutions that violate the cap would be subject to a civil penalty equal to the amount by which the CEO’s annual compensation exceeds the limit. The legislative proposals were referred to committees in late February, and no hearings were scheduled as of March 21.
According to the union, physicians support redirecting funds from what they deem as “excessive executive compensation” toward patient care, staffing improvements and essential hospital resources.
“Let me be clear: CEOs do not save lives. We do. All of us at the hospital do,” Tom Ituarte, MD, a resident physician at MGH, said in the CIR/SEIU release. “CEOs do not stay up all night in the ICU, making split-second decisions that determine whether a patient lives or dies. We do. CEOs do not carry the weight of an understaffed and broken hospital system on their backs while still trying to provide the best possible care. We do.”
Recent layoffs at Somerville, Mass.-based Mass General Brigham, reportedly affecting about 1,500 employees, also prompted the picketing.
“These layoffs seem to target those who reached the top of their pay scales. But what are the tops of these pay scales? These employees’ salaries were fractions of what the highest-paid MGB executives make,” Dale Davis, MD, a resident physician at BWH, said in the CIR/SEIU release. “This frank unfairness is angering.”
A spokesperson for MGB told the Globe that its board works with a third party to benchmark executive compensation, which is measured against “not-for-profit health systems and academic medical centers with over $10 billion in revenue.”
MGB, which recently announced plans to invest $400 million in cancer care as it prepares to transition away from its partnership with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, also shared the following statement with Becker’s:
“We have the highest respect for our trainees and physicians and value the many contributions they make in the care of our patients and are committed to supporting them fairly and equitably.”
Healthcare leaders work to create “a more accessible and innovative healthcare environment for everyone in the commonwealth” as they lead “extraordinarily complex organizations that save lives each day,” a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association said, according to the Globe. “We are proud of the extraordinary healthcare leaders who have made the choice to come serve here in Massachusetts. Through every crisis, they work around the clock to keep our system afloat and are a driving force behind the world-class patient care that our state is known for.”
