Ralph E. DeJong
Subscribe to Ralph E. DeJong's PostsRalph E. DeJong advises clients on the compensation, executive benefits and employee benefits of tax-exempt organizations. He provides counsel on designing and preparing deferred and incentive compensation arrangements, leading governing boards in the review and approval of executive and physician compensation arrangements, negotiating and preparing executive and physician employment agreements, and analyzing the private inurement and intermediate sanctions implications of executive and physician compensation and benefit arrangements. Read Ralph DeJong's full bio.
Addressing DOJ’s New Compliance Focus on Executive Compensation
By Ralph E. DeJong, Michael W. Peregrine, Sarah Walters and Eugene I. Goldman on May 19, 2023
Posted In Executive Compensation
The new compliance focus on executive compensation, as announced by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) on March 3, 2023, has significant implications for how healthcare organizations address both corporate compliance and compensation programs for their executives. It also raises new issues for the board of directors’ oversight of compliance and compensation functions. In a...
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Insights and Challenges for the Executive Compensation Committee
By Michael W. Peregrine and Ralph E. DeJong on Nov 30, 2022
Posted In Executive Compensation, Labor
The board’s executive compensation committee is the focus point for many of the extraordinary financial, economic and operating challenges currently facing healthcare organizations. Executive compensation increases are impacted by both an inflationary economy and significant revenue downturn. In addition, the US Department of Justice has identified executive compensation as an important conduit through by which...
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Treasury/IRS Release Proposed Regulations on Section 4960 Excise Tax
By Ralph E. DeJong and Robert C. Louthian, III on Jun 25, 2020
Posted In Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation
The US Department of the Treasury has released long-expected proposed regulations regarding the section 4960 excise tax on certain remuneration or separation amounts paid to the five highest paid employees of a tax-exempt organization. The new proposed regulations continue the tough approach previously taken on section 4960 issues, while also providing some new exceptions and...
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Reassessing Executive Compensation and Benefits in Tax-Exempt Organizations as the COVID-19 Crisis Deepens
By Ralph E. DeJong on Jun 9, 2020
Posted In Executive Compensation
Hospitals, health systems and other tax-exempt organizations are responding to a longer and deeper economic crisis by making or considering significant changes to their executive compensation and executive benefit programs. The economic crisis, and these executive compensation and benefit changes, have far-reaching implications for the ongoing work of the board’s compensation committee. We want to...
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CARES Act Impacts All Benefit Plans
By Andrew Liazos, Erin Steele, Evan A. Belosa, Jacob Mattinson, Lindsay Ditlow, Lisa Loesel, Ralph E. DeJong, Samuel Everett Dewey and Sarah L. Engle on Mar 31, 2020
Posted In Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation, Health and Welfare Plans, Retirement Plans
In the ongoing effort to help individuals impacted by COVID-19, Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Securities Act (CARES Act) on March 27, 2020. The President signed the CARES Act into law the same day. The historic stimulus package provides wide-ranging relief for both employers and employees. This includes rules that impact health...
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The 10 Most Significant Matters CEOs Should Know About Their Employment Contracts
By Ralph E. DeJong on Jan 30, 2020
Posted In Employee Benefits, Employment, Executive Compensation
The most significant issues in any employment or severance agreement are going to be personal to that situation, and will be driven in part by special issues and circumstances. For instance, succession planning issues may be incredibly important to the organization when the CEO is 65 years old and there is no clear successor, and...
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SCOTUS Refuses to Review Ninth Circuit Ruling on ACA Birth Control Rules
By Ralph E. DeJong and McDermott Will & Emery on Jul 11, 2019
Posted In Employee Benefits, Health and Welfare Plans
The US Supreme Court declined to review a recent Ninth Circuit decision, blocking the interim rules that exempted employers with religious or moral objections from providing birth control coverage required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Until such time as this issue is clarified, it is prudent for employers with employees in certain states to...
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Top Takeaways for Tax-Exempts from IRS Guidance on Executive Compensation
By Andrew Liazos, Erika Mayshar, Joseph K. Urwitz, Ralph E. DeJong and Robert C. Louthian, III on Jan 10, 2019
Posted In Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation
One of the more controversial and complex provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has been the 21 percent excise tax on certain nonprofit executive compensation. On December 31, 2018, the IRS issued interim guidance that addresses how this tax will apply in various situations that commonly arise for tax-exempt employers. Establishing internal systems...
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Free Parking Only Exists in Monopoly: New IRS Guidance Makes Employer-Provided Parking More Costly and Burdensome Than You Think
By Ralph E. DeJong, Robert C. Louthian, III, Samantha Souza, David Fuller, Erika Mayshar, Erin Steele and Joseph K. Urwitz on Dec 20, 2018
Posted In Employee Benefits
As part of its comprehensive 2017 tax reform bill, Congress repealed deductions for Qualified Transportation Fringes including for employer-provided parking, while also requiring that tax-exempt organizations increase their unrelated business taxable income by the nondeductible parking expenses. Recently released IRS Notice 2018-99 addresses some of the year-end tax filing and tax planning concerns for affected...
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Governing Health Podcast Series: Health Care Industry Executive Compensation Trends
By Michael W. Peregrine and Ralph E. DeJong on May 15, 2018
Posted In Employee Benefits, Executive Compensation
Executive compensation for the health care industry is always an important topic for the board, made even more critical by the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and recent governance trends. We’re joined by two of the leading health care industry voices on executive compensation practices: Tim Cotter of Sullivan, Cotter and Associates,...
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