October 3, 2011
Attorney General Martha Coakley told the Herald she wants to turn the clock back to when charity directors donated their time — and she’s headed to the State House today to urge the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary to help her make that happen.
“As a general rule, the historic reason that people volunteer to serve at public charities is because they have a fiduciary duty to the mission, not their own profit,” Coakley told the Herald in an exclusive interview. “This bill would restore what has always been the practice, up until the last few decades.”
The hearing takes place some six months after the Boston Herald reported that not-for-profit health insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts paid former CEO Cleve Killingsworth $11 million in salary, benefits and severance pay after he left the company.
During the brief few years that Killingsworth ran Blue Cross, it went from posting profits to a reported $149 million in losses. But Blue Cross’ 18 board members — who were paid as much as $89,886 for their year’s service — all approved his $11 million deal in 2010.
Bay Staters were enraged. Legally required to have health insurance, and already paying some of the nation’s highest premiums, many were still angry that Blue Cross’ board awarded outgoing CEO William Van Faasen $16.4 million in retirement pay in 2007.
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Source: BostonHerald.com, September 27, 2011
Source: BostonHerald.com, September 27, 2011
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