Palomar Health pulls plan to increase CEO’s pay by 20%

Palomar Health, a financially troubled North County public hospital district, has shelved a proposal to give its chief executive officer a 20% raise.

A contract amendment that was to come before the district’s directors at their meeting Monday was removed without explanation Friday and the Escondido medical provider’s board chair and attorney did not respond Saturday to a request for more information on the move.

The contract amendment was the only resolution under consideration at the meeting. Directors were being asked to increase Palomar CEO Diane Hansen’s base salary by 20%, but also to cancel a “variable compensation” clause in her contract that currently qualifies her for incentive payments between 10% and 30% per year, according to a 2023 contract amendment approved by the board and obtained by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Net-to-net, the proposed changes, because they eliminate incentives, appeared to potentially save Palomar some CEO expense in the coming years.

On Oct. 20, 2023, Palomar’s board set Hansen’s annual base salary at $1.69 million, specifying a series of 12 additional percentage increases in 2024, 2025 and 2026 that appear to have taken her base salary to about $2 million with the application of an automatic 3.5% base pay bump scheduled to be made on Jan. 1, 2026, though it is not clear whether that increase actually happened.

Kevin DeBruin, Palomar’s chief legal officer, did not respond to requests Frid...