Official Seal, Everything Is Broken (2026)

Everything Is Broken

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

South Dakota · North Dakota · Minnesota · Iowa · Ranked 52 of 1033 by CEO pay.

Sanford

Bill Gassen, Trustee, President & CEO. Fiscal year ending 2024-12.

$5.0M
CEO total compensation
Form 990 Part VII, columns D+E+F
1.53%
of expenses spent on charity care
Schedule H Part I line 7a
5.6%
CEO pay as a share of all charity care

Most of the reported compensation ($4,414,119 of $4,999,360) came from a related organization (Part VII column E) and was reported on this filing.

Also listed with a chief executive title in the same filings: Paul Hanson, President & CEO, Sioux Falls, $1,644,815; Tiffany Lawrence, President & CEO, Fargo, $1,605,697; Todd Schaffer, President & CEO, Bismarck, $1,351,976; Susan Jarvis, Former President & CEO, Bemidji, $1,066,941. Where a chief executive retired during the year, the filing reports the final-year payout.

§1The filing

Total revenue
$6,110,580,553
Total expenses
$5,829,138,669
Net assets
$3,131,607,162
Employees
3,271
Hospitals covered
26 facilities across 1 filing
Charity care, net
$89,067,697
Bad debt
$218,244,951
Medicare surplus (shortfall), as filed
$15,010,307
CEO pay from the organization (Part VII col. D)
$0
From related organizations (col. E)
$4,414,119
Other compensation, including deferred pay and nontaxable benefits (col. F)
$585,241
CEO total compensation (D+E+F)
$4,999,360 to Bill Gassen

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, Sanford, EIN 45-3791176, fiscal year ending 2024-12, as published by the IRS. CEO identification: ceo title multiple.

§2Community benefit versus charity care

What the system reported as total community benefit (Schedule H line 7k)$703.4M Of which charity care to patients who could not pay (line 7a)$89.1M (13%)

The rest of line 7k is Medicaid shortfall, medical education, research, subsidized services and contributions. Bad debt ($218.2M) and Medicare shortfall are reported separately by the IRS and are not community benefit on the form.

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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Sanford: CEO pay $5.0M, charity care 1.53% of expenses