How much do Winneshiek Medical Center administrators make? decorahnews.com's Paul Scott has an educated guess

Winneshiek Medical Center officials say they are not obligated to tell the public how much the hospital is paying Mayo Clinic Health Systems under the Management Services Agreement.

But four years ago, in response to a request by three Decorah news reporters, then Chief Administrative Officer Dan Werner disclosed the salaries of the hospital's Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Operating Officer,  Chief Financial Officer and Chief Nursing Officer--even its Pharmacy Director.

For instance, Werner was getting paid $180,000 a year as leader of the hospital.  The Chief Operating Officer was paid $146, 494.  The Chief Financial Officer was paid $135,012.  The Chief Nursing Officer was paid $103,563.  Only the Chief Medical Officer's salary was not disclosed.

Since that time, there has been turnover in three out of the five top administrative jobs.  It's possible the replacements were hired at lower salaries, but that doesn't always happen.

What follows here are some very rough estimates of what administrative costs are at the hospital, based on a 2.5 percent annual pay raise for all five positions:

Chief Administrative Officer was $180,000, now is roughly $200,000
Chief Operating Officer was $146,464, now is roughly $160,000
Chief Medical Officer 2008 salary was unknown, but an educated guess would be $150,000, now is roughly $165,000.
Chief Financial Officer was $135,012, now is roughly $150,000
Chief Nursing Officer was $103,563, now is roughly $115,000

Add these five figures together and you get $780,000 to $800,000 in administrative salaries.  These figures are not exact--but they're still a long way from being "maybe half a million."

But in addition to regular salaries, you would need to add the cost of benefits, plus the $140,000 in administrative costs, so my final best estimate is that payments to Mayo Clinic Health Systems for the Management Services Agreement are roughly $1.2 million a year.

Hospital officials may argue with these figures, but these figures are backed up by the actual 2008 figures.  Unless the hospital provides its own set of figures, this is probably the most accurate estimate out there.