Health
| Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods earns $25.8 million |
| Published Saturday, November 29, 2025 2:56 pm |
Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods earns $25.8 million
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| ATRIUM HEALTH |
| Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods earned $25.8 million in compensation in 2024, a 49% bump from the previous year, according to a corporate tax filing. |
Advocate Health CEO Gene Woods’ compensation surged to $25.8 million in 2024, a 49 percent jump from the $17.3 million he earned the previous year, according to a recent tax filing.
Woods’ total pay leading Atrium Health’s parent company has more than quadrupled since 2017, his first full year as CEO of Atrium Health — before their merger — when he earned $5.4 million.
Woods’ compensation places him above most other health care system leaders in the state. Novant Health CEO Carl Armato earned $8.2 million in 2024, Duke Health CEO Craig Albanese earned $2 million, WakeMed CEO Donald Gintzig earned $1.9 million, while Cone Health CEO Mary Jo Cagle and ECU Health CEO Michael Waldrum both took home about $1.7 million – but those organizations are significantly smaller than Advocate. UNC Health did not provide its executive pay figures by the deadline.
Woods also out-earned Sam Hazen, CEO of for-profit HCA Healthcare, the largest hospital system in the country and operator of Mission Health in western North Carolina. Hazen received $23.8 million in 2024.
This year’s increase makes Woods one of Charlotte’s highest paid executives in 2024. He earned more than all but one of the Charlotte region’s Fortune 500 companies, behind only Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan, who earned $35 million last year, according to securities filings.
Woods serves as the CEO of Advocate Health, Atrium Health’s new parent company. Advocate was formed under Woods’ leadership when Atrium combined with Midwest-based Advocate Aurora in 2022. It is now the country’s third-largest public health system, with $35 billion in annual revenue and hospitals in the Carolinas, Georgia, Illinois and Wisconsin. It has roughly 162,000 employees.
Woods’ pay consists of $4.6 million in base compensation, $14.4 million in bonus compensation, $3.8M in other reportable compensation and $2.9 million in retirement and other deferred pay, according to Advocate’s federal tax filing.
It lists 20 other senior leaders who earned more than $1 million in 2024, but that includes retirement and severance packages for some departing executives.
In a statement, Advocate said the system’s executive compensation “reflects the scale and complexity of guiding one of the nation’s largest health systems.” It emphasized that “the majority of compensation is performance-based,” tied to patient safety, quality and community impact metrics.
The statement also noted that Advocate has “the most U.S. News & World Report ‘Best Hospitals’ in North Carolina, Illinois and Wisconsin,” which it cited as evidence of its quality. Executive compensation, the system said, represents “just 0.17% of total system compensation.”
Atrium Health released the state-required compensation totals for its other executives in May but did not include Woods’ pay. At the time, an Atrium spokesman said Woods’ compensation would appear in Advocate Health’s 990 tax filing, which was due Nov. 17.
The Ledger/NC Health News has been requesting the filing since Nov. 15. Federal law requires nonprofits to provide a copy of their 990 immediately if someone asks for it in person, but the hospital was unable to produce the document when a reporter went to Advocate’s headquarters on Monday. Advocate emailed the filing on Tuesday afternoon.
Woods’ compensation leap reflects a broader trend of nonprofit healthcare systems paying their top executives handsomely. Critics say the compensation is hard to justifyfor nonprofit systems that receive millions in state and federal tax exemptions, and they argue that the growing gap between CEO pay and frontline worker pay undermines their public-service mission.
Comments
| Sherman hospital charge you before you go to the appointments. I do not understand this practice |
| Posted on February 3, 2026 |
| My family member worked harder than ever did this past year when Advocate acquired Atrium Health and has made less than ever before. They have been with Wake for 13 years, and there is zero respect for their efforts. Advocate billing lacks transparency, and their billing team had 2 members working across 3 medical departments! No wonder they can’t keep up. Many who are eligible for early retirement are taking that option. Maybe Advocate is banking that their “team members “ will not do anything to push back, but their arrogance will lose trusted, skilled team members. $25 million? Eugene Woods, you’re reaping what you’re not sowing, and you will strip the land bare soon. God help patients and team members when that day comes. |
| Posted on January 22, 2026 |
| Meanwhile the nurses and staff get Pennie’s on the dollar for their raises!! We don’t get a 49% raise!! Must be nice to just run the show and make sure any profit goes in his own pockets! |
| Posted on January 17, 2026 |
| "NON PROFIT"? I have worked in non-profit in the past and we did everything possible to save every penny to use our funding and donations for CLIENTS. Yes, it's a big complex job however let's get real about what is needed in compensation for this type of work, and what is needed for EVERYONE to live with their health and dignity. I agree with previous comment re sitting with a family who is trying to choose between medical care for their child or parent, and paying for the rising cost of heat, gas, food, and increases in auto and home insurance if you are fortunate enough to have those. Part of the comp package is a large retirement fund so there is no excuse that this much money is needed for the future. Try planning retirement on > Let's finally work toward balancing out the ridiculous imbalance of wealth and health in our country, as well as providing decent healthcare. It can be done, Advocate you should lead the way. |
| Posted on December 8, 2025 |
| This is very concerning. Woods as well as Advocates board is totally out of touch with the painful decision that Americans face in trying figure out how to pay for healthcare. This is nothing more the pure executive greed, plain and simple. Gene Woods needs to spend a week in the financial counseling department of one of his hospitals working with patients struggling to pay their bills and report back to the board what he learned. If that doesn't change his heart from self centered greed to one of service, then he is truly lost and not what we need running a large healthcare system. At some point an executive who is concerned about reducing our country's healthcare cost will say "I'm paid more than enough" and lead by example. Gene pass that point a long time ago and just keeps lining his pockets by milking the country's healthcare system. Shameful, disgraceful, criminal and yes sinful. |
| Posted on December 4, 2025 |
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