Health Care Chief Compliance Officers Average $125,000 in Compensation: Survey

Health care chief  compliance  officers (CCOs) averaged $125,000 in annual salary in 2012, with higher salaries earned by CCOs working at large organizations, according to a report from the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) and the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics released Jan. 16. The 2012 Health Care Chief Compliance Officers Salary Survey, the first of its kind, was completed in December 2012 and collected responses from 762 CCOs responsible for  compliance  activities at health care organizations ranging from less than 100 employees to more than 15,000. Overall, an e-mail questionnaire was sent to roughly 45,000 compliance officers. HCCA received 1,858 completed responses, but only 762 satisfied the three criteria they established for inclusion:

• The CCO had to work for a health care provider;

• The CCO had to be responsible for seven out of the 10 elements of an effective  compliance  program; and

• The CCO had to be responsible for at least 26 percent of an organization’s legal and regulatory risk.

“The demand for skilled  compliance  professionals is skyrocketing,” HCCA Chief Executive Officer Roy Snell said Jan. 17. “It is imperative that we have solid compensation data at hand.” Compliance Budgets CCOs responsible for annual compliance budgets of more than $1 million (105 respondents) had average annual salaries of $195,000, the report said, compared with average annual salaries of $89,000 for CCOs managing  compliance  budgets of less than $100,000 (151 respondents). The report said there was a direct correlation between CCO salary and the size of the annual compliance budget. CCO salaries were also higher at organizations with large numbers of employees. CCOs at organizations with more than 15,000 employees had average annual salaries of $214,000, compared to average annual salaries of $105,000 for CCOs at organizations with less than 100 employees. In addition, CCOs responsible for compliance at organizations with revenue of more than $1 billion (104 respondents) had average annual salaries of $197,000, compared to average annual salaries of $90,000 for CCOs at organizations with revenues of less than $5 million (58 respondents), the report said. Experience also played a role in determining CCO salaries, the report said. For example, CCOs with one year of experience in their role earned an average annual  salary of $96,000, while CCOs with 16 or more years of experience earned an average annual  salary  of $161,000. Only 10 percent of respondents said they were under a contract with their organization. The report is available online at www.hcca-info.org.