Report Critical of Pay Packages for Health Execs : Reform: The study, which finds no apparent link between salary and performance, will be presented to Congress today.

There is a “mind-boggling” range of pay among the chief executives at the nation’s health care corporations, with no apparent link between the huge salaries and a firm’s performance, according to a special report to be presented to Congress today.

The extraordinary salaries and stock options for corporate leaders in the health field “don’t seem to be buying anything worthwhile for shareholders,” business compensation expert Graef Crystal said in prepared testimony to be given at a hearing of the oversight subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Crystal’s study of 26 companies showed a range of total compensation, including pay and stock options, from $700,000 for the head of Beverly Enterprises to $127 million for the chief executive of Hospital Corp. of America.

“If you try to explain through the use of rational factors why one CEO earns $700,000 and another earns $127 million, you come up empty-handed,” Crystal said in the written testimony, a copy of which was obtained by The Times.

“Obviously, these huge extra costs must be borne by someone--either by shareholders . . . or by those who provide the revenues for health care companies, which, all too frequently, means the U.S. government and hence every taxpayer in the country,” Crystal testified.

The government accounts for about 30% of all health spending, through the Medicare program for people over 65 and the disabled of all ages, and through Medicaid, a joint federal-state program for the poor.

The oversight subcommittee, headed by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), who is also chairman of the full committee, has been conducting extensive hearings on the economic and financial condition of the health care industry, including topics such as the amount of charity care provided by hospital systems.

Today’s hearing will include testimony by Crystal and by representatives of the General Accounting Office, who will discuss a report on “unallowable and questionable” expenses charged to Medicare by Hospital Corp. of America.

The GAO identified $549,000 in unallowable costs, including $17,000 for alcoholic beverages at employee meetings and functions; $51,000 for entertainment at meetings; $11,000 to subsidize tickets to the symphony, theater and ballet, and $14,000 “for such items as a disc jockey, musicians and clowns to entertain at employee functions; golf at a chief executive officer’s conference; a reception at a local comedy showplace and a river dinner cruise.” In its prepared testimony, the GAO says the costs “are not related to patient care and, therefore, are unallowable.”

Jack Bovender, HCA’s executive vice president, who is also scheduled to be a witness today, says the company has done nothing improper.

In his prepared testimony, Bovender said the challenged Medicare items are a minuscule portion of the firm’s business. “HCA intends to be in compliance with the Medicare laws, regulations and program instructions,” he said. Medicare’s rules do not specifically define as unacceptable the cost items challenged by the GAO, he said.