Official Seal, Everything Is Broken (2026)

Everything Is Broken

Report No. 1 · Nonprofit Hospital Executive Pay vs Charity Care · Annual Report, 2026 edition

Texas · Ranked 84 of 1033 by CEO pay.

Cook Children's Medical Center

Rick W Merrill, CEO. Fiscal year ending 2025-09.

$3.6M
CEO total compensation
Form 990 Part VII, columns D+E+F
1.01%
of expenses spent on charity care
Schedule H Part I line 7a
18.6%
CEO pay as a share of all charity care
Rick W Merrill’s pay of $3,598,135 equals 18.6 percent of the $19,392,785 the system spent on charity care in the same year.

Most of the reported compensation ($2,377,721 of $3,598,135) came from a related organization (Part VII column E) and was reported on this filing.

§1The filing

Total revenue
$2,405,402,473
Total expenses
$1,912,012,487
Net assets
$2,093,296,590
Employees
6,197
Hospitals covered
2 facilities across 2 filings
Charity care, net
$19,392,785
Bad debt
$137,443,316
Medicare surplus (shortfall), as filed
$315,628
CEO pay from the organization (Part VII col. D)
$792,573
From related organizations (col. E)
$2,377,721
Other compensation, including deferred pay and nontaxable benefits (col. F)
$427,841
CEO total compensation (D+E+F)
$3,598,135 to Rick W Merrill

Medicare surplus (shortfall) is Schedule H Part III line 7: Medicare revenue minus the cost of Medicare care. A figure in parentheses is a shortfall. Like bad debt, it is not community benefit on the IRS form.

Source: Form 990, Cook Children's Medical Center, EIN 75-2051646, fiscal year ending 2025-09, as published by the IRS. CEO identification: ceo title.

§2Community benefit versus charity care

What the system reported as total community benefit (Schedule H line 7k)$361.0M Of which charity care to patients who could not pay (line 7a)$19.4M (5%)

The rest of line 7k is Medicaid shortfall, medical education, research, subsidized services and contributions. Bad debt ($137.4M) and Medicare shortfall are reported separately by the IRS and are not community benefit on the form.

§3Filings in this system

Filing entityEINFY endRevenueCharity care% of expensesFiling
Cook Children's Medical Center75-20516462025-09$2.3B$17.3M0.99%990
Cook Children's Medical Center - Prosper85-23541892025-09$137.0M$2.1M1.27%990

Every number on this page was copied from the filing linked above. If a figure is wrong, send the filing that contradicts it and the correction runs at the top of this page.

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Cook Children's Medical Center: CEO pay $3.6M, charity care 1.01% of expenses