EDITORIAL: Corporate Greed Playing Out at a RI Hospital Near You
EDITORIAL
EDITORIAL: Corporate Greed Playing Out at a RI Hospital Near You
In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Lifespan CEO Timothy Babineau announced that he would not take a salary due to the hospital’s poor financial situation.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST
Well, that was not true.
Not only did Babineau take his full salary, but the company’s annual financials also show Babineau grabbed nearly $4 million, as first reported by WPRI. That number included a significant bonus — $768,000.
Ironically, unions voiced outrage in 2011 because Babineau received compensation of more than $1.1 million. Now, a decade later, Babineau's compensation increased more than 250%.
Babineau and the board of Lifespan have had a less-than-spectacular performance in recent years.
Lifespan is recording mammoth financial losses. The hospital group has had multiple failed mergers. The most ridiculous was its anti-competitive effort to merge with Care New England — the state's second-largest hospital group. It was a proposed merger that was flawed from the beginning and was blasted by both the Federal Trade Commission and Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha.
And, the staff departures are at a record pace. For those employees working the front line through COVID, RSV, the flu and the “normal” healthcare challenges, they will be further horrified to learn of the administration’s greed.
Care New England’s outgoing Dr. James Fanale also grabbed millions — $1.8 million. That hospital group has been a financial basket case for a decade and has had over a half-dozen failed mergers. Fanale received a 15% increase over the prior year.
Fanale has failed to properly fund the employees' pension fund, and basic maintenance spending is far below industry standards.
And remember, these bonus-driven salaries were for 2020.
Both Fanale and Babineau left their CEO posts in 2022, so it will be two years before we actually learn what these two grabbed going out the door.
While Neronha has been aggressive in regulating the for-profit hospital group CharterCARE, he has been less than aggressive in reviewing Lifespan and Care New England. (Neronha’s wife is an employee of Lifespan, according to the Attorney General’s Ethics Commission Financial Disclosure Statement).
Before the General Assembly considers any further special appropriations, legislative leaders should demand the public disclose corporate compensation for 2021, 2022 and what is budgeted for 2023.
These hospital groups are dripping with self-dealing and greed. It is time to turn on the light.