New UIHC CEO Bradley Haws will make $1.1M, plus incentive

IOWA CITY — When Bradley Haws takes the reins Nov. 29 as the new chief executive officer of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics — following a stint as UIHC chief financial officer two years ago — he’ll earn a $1.1 million starting salary, with the chance for $385,000 more in incentive pay.

That $1.1 million matches the pay his predecessor, Suresh Gunasekaran, was earning when he left in early 2022, a salary that just months earlier had increased 35 percent from $816,000 in March 2021, according to university records.

UI President Barbara Wilson in October 2021 approved a UI Health Care “leadership incentive program” allowing its CEO and CFO to earn a 35-percent annual incentive — which was offered to Haws upon his rehire this month.

“The incentive plan is designed to provide a percentage of the direct compensation paid to designated organizational leaders of UI Health Care based on individual and institutional performance and goal achievement during the performance period,” according to a summary of the plan attached to Haws’ Nov. 4 offer letter.

The incentive means Haws could earn another $385,000 after the close of the 2025 budget year on June 30, 2025. Haws also received a $100,000 “transition allowance” — which he must pay back if he leaves within a year of his hiring.

Plan details

The incentive plan is available to other UIHC leaders, too, although at different rates. Vice President for Medical Affairs Denise Jamieson, earning an annual $1.3 million salary, also could earn a 35-percent incentive.

Twenty-one other UIHC executive, chief, director or vice presidential posts are eligible to earn 20 percent incentive pay — partly in hopes of “enhancing UI Health Care’s ability to provide competitive pay levels to attract the highest quality leaders in the health care industry.”

The payout has two parts for most participants — except Jamieson, whose lump sum is based entirely on “institutional goals and institutional financial performance.” For the other participants, including Haws, half the payout is based on institutional metrics and half is based on “individual goals” established in collaboration with a supervisor.

Participants are to have two to five “realistic, but aggressive” goals tied to professional and institutional aims like quality and safety; research; patient satisfaction; and financial performance, among other things.

For incentive payments to go out, the hospital’s operating margin can’t be less than .5 percent of the set goal for the budget year. UIHC’s operating income, as of September, was 19 percent over budget, due to its participation in a federal program for providers willing to expand access and increase capacity for Iowa Medicaid beneficiaries.

In April 2022, that partnership infused $270.8 million into UIHC’s operating revenue budget, propelling its operating income 416 percent above its budget that year.

Without the nearly $79 million in directed payment revenue to date this year, the university would be $8 million in the red. Including investment and other non-operating losses, UIHC’s net income in September — even with the directed payment revenue — was $14 million under budget, or 22 percent below the goal.

Executive coach

As part of Haws job offer, the university is providing him an “executive coach” and asking him to work with that person for six months to a year.

“Most new executives find that a one-year coaching engagement is highly beneficial to achieving success in their new roles, and I strongly encourage this,” according to the offer letter from Jamieson, who also was given resources in her offer letter for “executive coaching during your first 12 to 18 months of employment.”

The university didn’t provide additional information about the coaches, including whether they are internal UI employees or are to be provided from an outside firm.

“There is no coaching agreement for Brad at this time; just a commitment,” UIHC spokeswoman Laura Shoemaker said.

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