Centene CEO Tops List of Highest-Paid Publicly Traded Health Insurers' Executives in 2018

By Jane Anderson

Centene Corp. CEO Michael Neidorff was the top-paid publicly traded health insurer CEO in 2018, easily winning the No. 1 slot for the fifth year in a row with total compensation of $26.12 million.

Cigna Corp. CEO David Cordani came in second place for total CEO compensation in 2018, with earnings of $18.94 million, an increase of 7.7%. UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann was in third place, with total compensation of $18.11 million, a 4.1% increase from 2017.

Humana Inc. CEO Bruce Broussard came in fourth, with $16.31 million in compensation, a 17.4% drop from 2017. Molina Healthcare, Inc. CEO Joseph Zubretsky was fifth, with total compensation of $15.22 million in 2018, a 22.9% decrease from 2017.

Rachel Grof, director, rewards at Willis Towers Watson in Boston, tells AIS Health that health plan boards are considering more than just stock performance when structuring compensation.

In addition, the human resources and compensation committees of company boards are focusing more on such topics as inclusion/diversity, pay equity and transparency within their organizations, Grof says.

Based on the data from the proxy statements, Grof says that organizations continue to use equity and other awards for newly hired or promoted executives. However, she says, "organizations have been somewhat cautious and tactical with compensation increases. They're no longer using 'peanut butter' type of approaches — they're trying to differentiate more and more based on performance, skills and criticality."

From Health Plan Weekly