Study finds Veterans Affairs pay doesn’t measure up

Health care administrators at the Veterans Affairs Department take home up to 43 percent less pay than their private-sector counterparts, according to a new study. Private-sector health care executives earn up to $300,000 more per year than those at the VA, according to The Hay Group, a human resources consulting firm commissioned by the agency's Senior Executives Association to do the study. Hay compared the compensation, duties and overall job complexity of VA medical directors in Madison, Wis., Boise, Idaho, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with the pay and duties of private-sector health care leaders. More than half of the department's medical executives are eligible for retirement, so the VA Senior Executives Association wanted to ensure that executive positions within VA "remain attractive enough to retain seasoned people," the report said. According to the study, the four Veterans Integrated Services Network (VISN) directors earn $130,200 annually--43 percent less than chief operating officers at comparably sized facilities. Each VISN director leads a regional network of VA hospitals and health care facilities. The study considered multi-hospital systems with $1 billion in revenues to be comparably sized. At smaller medical centers, directors take home 34 percent less than their private sector counterparts. "Pay shortfalls are from $66,000 to $180,000 at their smallest. They create real concerns over the VA's ability to retain capable health care facility leadership," the report said.