Excellus board voted itself a 37 percent pay raise

The Syracuse Post-Standard related that the directors of Excellus voted to raise their pay by 37 percent last year after a consultant hired by the insurer determined they were underpaid.

The raises for the 17 outside directors came at the same time the nonprofit insurer lost money on its operations and cut the pay of its top executives.

The same year, Excellus increased health insurance rates on average 8 percent. For 2010, the insurer raised its rates an average of 8.8 percent. Both years, some customers saw substantially higher rate increases.

The company paid the directors $1.08 million in 2009, up from $795,338 in 2008. Director pay averaged $64,040 last year. Pay varies depending on a director’s responsibilities. Read more here.

The article also points out that this is a nonprofit with a compensated (and highly) board, which is a rarity. With rising health insurance costs, this issue seems problematic and worthy of serious examination.