Accretive CEO made $20.5 million in his first year at the helm

Dr. Emad Rizk made $20.6 million in his first year as CEO of Accretive Health, nursing back to health a Chicago company reeling from controversy.

The bulk of his 2014 compensation came from stock and options awards, totaling $20.3 million. He also received $338,835 in salary. The compensation was disclosed today in a proxy statement ahead of the annual shareholders meeting Aug. 14.

“By making the greatest portion of our chief executive officer's compensation package in the form of performance-based pay, with value directly tied to the increase in value of our organization and thus our stock price, we aim to ensure that our executive compensation packages are strongly focused on pay-for-performance, not merely attraction and retention,” the statement said.

The company cited several goals achieved in 2014, such as boosting its investment in IT and making results more consistent for its customers.

But last year also was a “challenging period” for Accretive, which fell short of financial goals, the statement said. That's why Stephen Schuckenbrock, who was CEO from April 2013 to July 2014, missed out on a potential $595,000 bonus, the statement said.

Among other executives' compensation in 2014:

• Peter Csapo, chief financial officer and treasurer since August, made $3.1 million. Most of his compensation came from stock and options awards totaling $2.9 million.
• Joseph Flanagan, chief operating officer since April 2013, received $6.1 million, a 40 percent decrease from the previous year when he got $10.3 million, mostly due to a decline in stock and options awards.

Accretive specializes in helping hospitals collect bill payments from patients and insurers, a sector ripe for growth. Under the Affordable Care Act, hospitals are undergoing a dramatic shift in how they are paid, making their billing processes even more complex. At the same time, consolidation is making health systems even bigger, prompting them to chase after more bills.

Rizk took over in July 2014 and has worked to fix a company that was accused of preying on vulnerable hospital patients and needed to restate years of financial reports.

The board has undergone a reboot. Just last month, Accretive disclosed in a company filing that it took a big hit in 2014: a net loss of nearly $80 million, compared with a $130 million profit the previous year.

"Accretive CEO made $20.5 million in his first year at the helm" originally appeared on the website of Crain's Chicago Business.