Regence Blueshield CEO Tops List Of Best-Paid Health-Insurance Execs

Regence BlueShield Chief Executive Officer Richard Dean was the highest paid health-insurance executive in the state last year, taking home $587,949 in salary and bonuses.

Dean appeared at the top of state Insurance Commissioner Deborah Senn's annual list of executive salaries in the industry. His compensation represents a 20 percent pay raise over his 1997 earnings.

Not far behind Dean was Premera Chief Executive Officer Betty Woods, who made $458,270 but did not receive a bonus.

In third place was Terry Rogers, former senior vice president for medical affairs at Regence, who earned $446,206 before stepping down last year.

Executives from Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound were a little farther down the list. President Cheryl Marie Scott earned $282,554. And former Group Health Cooperative President and CEO Phil Nudelman made $373,746.

All but $35,000 of Nudelman's pay came from a bonus.

In one of the more striking findings in Senn's report, former Regence CEO Dale Francis, who retired in 1997, stayed on the executive payroll in 1998 and received a $190,766 bonus.

Health-care service contractors and health-maintenance organizations are required to list their top executives' salaries, bonuses and total compensation in the annual reports they file with the insurance commissioner.