Independent nonprofit Nebraska newsroom The Flatwater Free Press has published an extensive article about a gastroenterologist who made nearly $5 million and a surgeon who made nearly $4 million in 2024 while working at nonprofit health system Faith Health, making them “the two highest-paid nonprofit employees in the state.”
The report states that the physicians benefitted from “a bonus system criticized for incentivizing more medical procedures,” which Nebraska’s state auditor calls “inexplicable.” Flatwater Free Press reports:
“Most of their compensation came from bonus and incentive pay, at least in part determined using a commonly used calculation that is often criticized by doctors and others for rewarding more procedures. In the case of the gastroenterologist, who no longer works for Faith, a former patient told the Flatwater Free Press that he felt the doctor had performed an extra procedure without his permission.”
Faith Health leaders “declined interview requests and did not answer specific questions emailed to them,” writes the outlet, but its chief operating officer sent it a statement that said “it’s challenging to recruit and retain doctors in Norfolk, a city of about 26,000 in northeast Nebraska.” The statement added that Faith Health “sets salaries based on data, and physicians can earn bonuses for hard work, like at other hospitals.”
Read Flatwater Free Press’ full report, laden with interviews, here.
