CalOptima, a public health insurance company for low-income residents in Orange County, awarded its chief executive Michael Hunn a 50-percent raise plus additional benefits this month.
Eight months after officially hiring Hunn as CEO, the CalOptima Board of Directors voted Oct. 6 to increase his salary from $560,000 to $841,500 a year—or $70,125 every month, before taxes.
The salary and benefits will be retroactive to July 3, 2022.
“This amendment extends Hunn’s contract from three to five years in order to lead the agency in fully executing its mission and vision financial and operational improvements, and improving the care it provides to one in four Orange County residents,” CalOptima spokeswoman Deanne Thompson told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement.
Hunn’s contract was extended from three to five years, and he will now be eligible for an annual performance incentive of 10 percent of his annual base salary starting July 1, 2023.
The board also extended the days of paid time off from 28 to 33 days each year. He was also awarded a $1 million insurance policy for life and accidental death.
Hunn, a native of St. Louis, was first hired as interim chief executive at CalOptima in November 2021, replacing retiring CEO Richard Sanchez. The board hired Hunn permanently in March.
A former priest, Hunn has a master’s degree from Kenrick-Glennon Seminary in systematic theology with a concentration in morals and health care ethics. He also earned a bachelor’s degree from Cardinal Glennon College in philosophy and a minor in American history, according to CalOptima.
Prior to CalOptima, Hunn operated the Hunn Group, a healthcare advisory firm based in Laguna Niguel. Before that, he spent four years—from 2010 to 2014—as chief executive of Providence Health & Services’ California region. Hunn was in charge of Providence’s six Los Angeles-area hospitals, including Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica and the Little Company of Mary Medical Center in Torrance.
CalOptima Health Board Chair Andrew Do, also an Orange County supervisor, was not available to comment on Hunn’s contract, according to his staff. During the Oct. 6 meeting, he congratulated Hunn on his work.
“Congratulations, Michael,” Do said. “And thank you again for your great work. And the comments from the board have been unanimously very positive and appreciative of the many contributions you have brought to CalOptima Health.”
CalOptima Chief Operating Officer Yunkyung Kim thanked the board after the vote for Hunn’s contract extension.
“Your latest action on Michael’s contract provides us with the assurances of a consistent leadership at the helm of our organization, while we implement the vision and mission that this board has set out for us and that Michael is leading us to achieve, so thank you very much for that,” Kim said.
Board Member Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency, said he was grateful for Hunn’s work during the pandemic.
“Thank you, Michael, and thank you so much for your hard work through the pandemic on health,” Chau said. “The end result of your work on CalOptima pointed out that we truly, as an agency, pay attention to the well-being of our members.”
CalOptima, one of the state’s largest Medi-Cal insurers, serves about 882,000 low-income Orange County residents.
This month, Hunn announced more food benefits for its qualifying members in October—including a 12.7 percent increase in credits distributed through the CalFresh food assistance program to make up for higher food prices after record inflation.
“We don’t want people making decisions between food and rent,” Hunn told ABC7. “The price of milk, butter, eggs, cereal for kids, lunch meats, bread for the kids for school lunches and so forth. All of that’s gone up so it’s impacting the family budget and they have to cut somewhere to save on the other side.”
The bump in benefits will mean an individual can receive up to $281 a month for food and a family of four can get up to $939 a month.
