UPMC execs’ compensation is outrageous

With all that there is to generate outrage on the international, national and local stage, the report of UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff’s $6.99 million in compensation last year ought to raise a special anger here in Pittsburgh and Allegheny County (“CEO Romoff’s $6.99M Tops List of UPMC Compensation,” May 13). When you consider that the amount is 2¾ times the compensation of the Mayo Clinic’s CEO (who is a physician, whereas Mr. Romoff is not), it brings a special focus to Mr. Romoff’s outsized compensation.

When you add to that the PG information that an additional 24 staff members received compensation over $1 million last year, the blood begins to boil. All the while, UPMC is delaying a minimum $15 starting wage until 2021 for entry-level service employees, a policy praised by city and county leaders as forward-thinking.

The same city and county do not receive anything like adequate compensation from UPMC for the governmental services it benefits from. At the same time, UPMC lavishes sponsorship onto professional teams (Penguins and Steelers) and universities (Pitt and Robert Morris) while excessively promoting itself in an unending barrage of advertisements in all forms of media.

The unending acquisition of hospital systems and physician practices and the construction of unnecessary facilities and competing structures show that UPMC is spending as much as it can to promote and grow its organization to minimize its operating income and margin to a point that can be explained away as being within nonprofit parameters. PAUL J. BATES

Hampton