Eli's Hospice Insider

Published on Fri Mar 22, 2013 PDF

How would you like your salary splashed across the local news? That’s what San Diego Hospice executives are facing as the historic provider’s implosion continues.

Background: San Diego Hospice announced unfavorable Medicare audit results last November and filed for bankruptcy last month with plans to close its doors. Now the hospice is under fire for giving raises to execs while the audit was ongoing.

CEO Kathleen Pacurar is now paid $336,591 a year, chief information officer Traci Bruckner had a salary of $203,991 before she resigned in January, and interim Chief Financial Officer Erin Graham now makes $180,000 a year, reports the U-T San Diego newspaper.

The newspaper is also investigating what will happen to the San Diego Hospice Foundation’s $22 million in donations that remain. For now, the funds aren’t mixed up in the bankruptcy proceedings. But creditors may convince the bankruptcy judge to allow them access to the money eventually, former bankruptcy judge John D. Ayer told the U-T.

A former nurse employed by the hospice has filed a whistleblower suit against the provider, reports KPBS. And bankruptcy creditors are challenging a deal that the hospice struck with Scripps Health to transfer its patient load for free. A for-profit company made a $1 million offer for the business, reports U-T.