Indiana county hospitals are seeking an exemption from a requirement that they make the salaries of doctors and staff public, saying doing so puts them at a disadvantage with their private counterparts.
State law requires that salaries of public employees be made public. They can be accessed through the Indiana Gateway for Government Units.
But the Indiana Hospital Association says publishing doctors' salaries is different from posting the pay of city council members because it gives private competitors access to internal information.
"We consider this an interpretation, a poor interpretation, of what a county hospital is," Spence Grover, vice president of the association, told The Indianapolis Star. "It's been a thorn for some of the county hospitals for some time."
Though county hospitals were created by county government, few, if any, receive property tax money.
"We're county hospitals because it took an act of the county to form us," Grover said. "A county hospital can function on its own."
But the State Board of Accounts requires compensation data for every unit of government in Indiana.
Even so, fewer than half the county hospitals in Indiana filed compensation disclosure forms with the state.
Send us a letter
Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.
