The purpose of this section is to explain how executive leadership compensation is established at Novant Health, a not-for-profit organization. Listed below are the members of Novant Executive Team and the value of their 2011 compensation and benefits.

Our organization considers an employee's compensation personal and private. However, we also recognize the importance of transparency and public interest in how tax-exempt, not-for-profit organizations establish compensation and benefits for its top leaders. Novant Health prepares and files annually a Form 990 with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that discloses important financial information about the organization, including executive compensation and benefits. These annual information returns follow IRS rules and regulations, but they can be easily misinterpreted because of their complexity. We hope you find the summary on this page useful.

How executive compensation is established

• The Novant Health Board of Trustees, which consists of community leaders from organizations and businesses, establishes executive compensation. Novant executives are not involved in determining their own compensation and benefits.
• Because Novant is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization, its executive compensation must follow very specific checks and balances. Compensation must be considered "reasonable" and within an acceptable range compared to similar organizations. Executive compensation and benefits are established by comparing Novant Health to other similar health systems and organizations around the country that are comparable in size, complexity and reputation. The Board hires national, independent experts who guide trustees in this benchmarking process and help assure that compensation and benefits do not exceed fair market value.
• Compensation is designed to be competitive and to help recruit and retain leaders. Novant establishes executive base salaries in the same way it establishes compensation for all employees, by using market data and comparing to similar jobs.
• A significant part of executive compensation is based upon the performance of the organization and achieving goals that are challenging, balanced and focused on improving the services we provide to patients and communities. The executive team performs in the top quartile nationally. Novant's goals focus on the quality and safety of healthcare, improving the patient experience, transforming to an electronic health record, financial stewardship and providing community benefit.
• In 2011, Novant provided $567 million in community benefit, which includes charity care. Novant Health is a complex organization with 25,000 employees, annual revenues of $3.5 billion, 13 hospitals and approximately 500 locations which include physician clinics and outpatient centers across four main states. This complexity is taken into consideration by the Board when establishing compensation.