New Hampshire Senate approves bill to freeze hospital CEO pay in certain circumstances

The New Hampshire Senate passed legislation Thursday that would forbid hospitals located in distressed place-based economies from increasing executive compensation for 18 months if that hospital eliminates more than 10 employees in a single department within a six-month period.

Senate Bill 664, sponsored by Littleton Republican Sen. David Rochefort, would impose a $10,000 fine on any hospital in violation. Coös County is the only distressed place-based economy — an official designation given to the county by the Legislature last year — in New Hampshire, and North Country Healthcare operates the only three hospitals in the county, which encompasses a broad swath of rural northern New Hampshire. 

North Country Healthcare is in the middle of a formal review from the Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts Unit and has sparked public criticisms from a group in Lancaster calling itself the Concerned Patients Group. Among the topics of concern about the hospital system is the decision to outsource its revenue cycle department last year amid increasing pay for executives at the hospital.

The bill will now be considered by the House. If the House approves it, Gov. Kelly Ayotte will have the option to either sign the bill into law, veto it, or let it enter law without her signature.