Norton Healthcare
Legal name: Norton Healthcare Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 611028725
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- Louisville, KY, USA
- Phone
- (502) 629-1234
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Health Systems
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $759,365,626
- Expenses
- $734,469,947
- Assets
- $2,604,396,769
- Liabilities
- $2,331,085,105
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
44 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Russell F Cox (President & CEO/Trustee)
Highest reported compensation
- Russell F Cox (President & CEO/Trustee): $4,115,838 total reported compensation
- Michael W Gough (Exec VP and COO (partial year)): $3,217,019 total reported compensation
- Steven Hester MD (Senior VP & Chief Clinical and Strategy Office): $1,949,641 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Norton Healthcare’s purpose is to provide quality health care to all those we serve, in a manner that responds to the needs of our communities and honors our faith heritage. Working with you and your primary care provider, Norton Behavioral Medicine therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, addiction medicine specialists and licensed clinical social workers become part of your care team. You’ll get coordinated care for common mental health concerns, designed to support you without long-term commitments to therapy. Our team is able to provide treatment for conditions including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorder and eating disorders to help improve your concentration, reduce absenteeism from work and get back to enjoying life more. RELATED:** Mental health is as important as physical health. If you need mental health help,.
What it reported doing in 2024
Norton Healthcare Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation serving adult and pediatric patients from throughout Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. The not-for-profit hospital and health care system has six Louisville-based hospitals and three hospitals in Southern Indiana. Norton Healthcare expanded services in 2024 with the addition of Norton West Louisville Hospital. This new hospital adds to the recent additions of Norton King's Daughters Health in 2022 and Norton Clark Hospital and Norton Scott Hospital in 2023. Norton West Louisville Hospital opened in November 2024. The hospital offers comprehensive services, including adult and pediatric primary care physician offices, emergency department services, inpatient services and outpatient functions. Imaging services, including X-rays and CT scans, are available, along with specialty services such as women's health, cardiology, neurology and endocrinology. Some physician offices offer evening hours as well. (Continued on Schedule O)
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Other-operating. 87% of the money available for current operations came from other operating revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 92% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 96
- Sustainability: 51
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 85.6%; rating input score 86
- Program expense ratio: 84.4%; rating input score 84
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Scored; rating input score 0
- Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 77th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 94.4%; rating input score 94; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 3.3%; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.55; rating input score 80; 80th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.9; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 4%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.8% per year; rating input score 100; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 8 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 85.6% of revenue deployed · 84.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 17 of 18 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $620.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $4.1M · 44 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $42.7M reported
- Consistency: 36 of 37 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 11 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 106 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 72 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 49/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 13/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 26/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.