By Michelle Crouch
Co-published with The Charlotte Ledger
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 (see full IRS form 990 at the bottom of the page).
Woods’ total pay leading the Atrium Health 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, UNC Health CEO Wesley Burks earned $2.36 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.
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 this year..
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 justify for 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.
| Health care system | CEO | 2024 compensation | 2023 compensation | Increase from 2023 |
| Advocate Health (Atrium Heath’s parent company) | Gene Woods | $25.8 million | $17.3 million | 49% |
| HCA Healthcare (Operates Mission Health) | Sam Hazen | $23.8 million | $21.3 million | 12% |
| Novant Health | Carl Armato | $8.2 million | $5.8 million | 41% |
| UNC Health | Wesley Burks | $2.36 million | $3.8 million | -38% |
| Duke Health | Craig Albanese | $2 million | $1.5 million | 33% |
| WakeMed | Donald Gintzig | $1.9 million | $1.9 million | 0% |
| Cone Health | Mary Jo Cagle | $1.7 million | $1.6 million | 6% |
| ECU Health | Michael Waldrum | $1.7 million | $1.4 million | 21% |
This article is part of a partnership between The Charlotte Ledger and North Carolina Health News to produce original health care reporting. You can support this effort with a tax-deductible donation.
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One thing the author of this article needs to follow-up on is how many people got laid off at Advocate and Atrium in 2024 and 2025. If this man is still CEO by the end of 2026 or his compensation not cut back to the seven figure range, then it’s safe to say that our media, elected officials, rules that govern not for profit status and board members of our heathcare systems are asleep at the wheel.