Where does Valley Children’s latest tax return stack up to other children’s hospitals? (2024)

The latest tax returns from Valley Children’s Hospital reveals that CEO Todd Suntrapak is still paid higher than other children’s hospital executives in California.

The hospital’s life insurance-based retirement plans also appear to be unique among children’s hospitals across the nation, although one neighboring hospital in Fresno reported a similar structure.

The backstory: Suntrapak has pulled in over $13.5 million in total compensation from 2020-2022, and that does not include the $5 million forgivable home loan he received in tax year 2021 as a retention bonus.

• In tax year 2021, Valley Children’s paid its executives around $27 million in total, with Suntrapak’s total compensation set at $5.1 million.

• The hospital said it adjusted its bonus schedule for tax purposes, leading to two bonuses being given out to each executive in 2021.

• Tax year 2022 shows that Suntrapak’s total pay package was around $3.05 million.

A California comparison: Suntrapak’s $3.05 million compensation package is higher than other children’s hospital CEOs around California, despite Valley Children’s being the fourth-largest children’s hospital in the state.

• Valley Children’s Hospital (Madera, California – 16th-largest in America)
  • Net assets: $1.77 billion
  • Executives earning more than $1 million: six
  • Executive payroll: $19.13 million
  • Chief Executive compensation: $3.05 million

• Rady Children’s Hospital (San Diego, California – 5th-largest in America)
  • Net assets: $2.66 billion
  • Executives earning more than $1 million: one
  • Executive payroll: $16.3 million
  • Chief Executive compensation: $1.78 million

• Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California – 11th-largest)
  • Net assets: $1.74 billion
  • Executives earning more than $1 million: Six
  • Executive payroll: $15.44 million
  • Chief Executive compensation: $2.08 million

• Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford (Palo Alto, California – 13th-largest) Tax year 2022 was not available. The following data is from tax year 2021:
  • Net Assets: $2.83 billion
  • Executives earning more than $1 million: Three (excludes compensation paid by affiliate organizations)
  • Executive payroll: $13.4 million (excludes compensation paid by affiliate organizations)
  • Chief Executive salary*: $2.5 million

• Tax returns for Packard Hospital report the salary of the organization’s CEO Paul King – the figure displayed above – along with the Chief Executive of Stanford Health Care, David Entwistle, who earned $5.26 million, per 2021 tax returns.

• Children’s Hospital of Orange County (Orange, California – 22nd largest in America)
  • Net assets: $1.02 billion
  • Executives earning more than $1 million: one (via affiliate organization, see below)
  • Executive payroll: $11.9 million
  • Chief Executive compensation: $1.86 million
  • Compensation paid via CHOC affiliate organization, Children’s Healthcare of California

High compensation nationally: Suntrapak’s compensation ranked among the top children’s hospital executives nationally.

• The only two children’s hospitals in the nation with larger bed sizes who handed out higher compensation packages to their CEOs in 2022 were Texas Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
• Both of those hospitals are significantly larger than Valley Children’s. Texas Children’s Hospital, located in Houston, is the largest children’s hospital in the nation with 863 beds, according to Becker’s Hospital Review. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is fourth in the nation with 667 beds. Valley Children’s has 358 beds.
• Texas Children’s Hospital paid its CEO $8.85 million in 2022, and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia paid its CEO $3.74 million in 2022.

Looking local: Fresno’s Community Medical Centers’ 2022 tax returns are not yet publicly available.

• In 2021, Community Medical Centers CEO Craig Castro received a total compensation package worth $2.4 million.

• Community – which operates Community Regional Medical Center in downtown Fresno, Clovis Community Medical Center and other facilities – had three executives earn over $1 million in total compensation in 2021.

• Community reported its net assets at $1.56 billion and paid out $13.9 million to its executives.

Retention bonuses: In 2022, Valley Children’s increased the life insurance-based retirement policies for some top executives by $20 million, totaling $58 million.

• That also includes the $5 million forgivable home loan that Suntrapak used to purchase a $6.5 million house in Carmel-by-the-Sea.
• Valley Children’s explained the loans – as they are listed in the tax returns – as life-insurance based retirement plans that have lengthy vesting periods. The plans give executives tax-free annuity payouts when they retire as a retention bonus, while the hospital recoups the initial investment with interest and excess proceeds, expected to be worth $78.9 million.
• Fresno’s Community Medical Centers offers similar plans to its top executives, although the total investment is far less at $16.17 million.
• Lucile Packard Hospital offered housing loans to four executives totaling $3.5 million in 2021.
• Rady Children’s Hospital gave its CEO a $250,000 housing relocation loan, with a balance of nearly $170,000 left in 2022.
• Texas Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia did not offer any similar retention bonuses.
• The only children’s hospital with more beds than Valley Children’s in the country that reported a similar structure was Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, which has $4.15 million in life insurance for its executives.