SSM Health
Legal name: Ssm Health Care Corporation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 466029223
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-T 2024
- Location
- St Louis, MO, USA
- Phone
- 3149947800
- Rating
- 72
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Community Health Systems
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,391,036,296
- Expenses
- $1,282,554,955
- Assets
- $7,018,706,101
- Liabilities
- $3,603,513,986
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
39 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LAURA KAISER (DIRECTOR (EX-OFFICIO) & PRES/CEO)
- STEVEN SMOOT (VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER)
Highest reported compensation
- LAURA KAISER (DIRECTOR (EX-OFFICIO) & PRES/CEO): $7,886,813 total reported compensation
- STEVEN SMOOT (VICE PRESIDENT & CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $3,484,633 total reported compensation
- DOUGLAS LONG (SECRETARY & CHIEF LEGAL OFFICER): $2,287,921 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
SSM Health is a Catholic, not-for-profit health system working to advance health equity and empower all people to achieve their full potential. With care delivery sites in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin, SSM Health provides convenient access to high-quality community-based services as well as world-class academic medicine, clinical trials, and research studies. The organization’s footprint includes hospitals, physician offices, outpatient and virtual care services, senior care, comprehensive home care and hospice services, a fully transparent pharmacy benefit company, a health insurance company, and an accountable care organization. As one of the largest employers in every community it serves, the organization’s more than 40,000 team members and more than 15,000 providers are dedicated to fulfilling SSM Health’s Mission.
What it reported doing in 2024
Ssm health care corporation (ssmhcc), a Missouri nonprofit corporation, is the parent entity of a fully integrated health system with its headquarters based in st. Louis, Missouri. Ssmhcc and its consolidated subsidiaries (doing business as ssm health (ssmh)) own and operate 23 acute care hospitals, one of which specializes in pediatrics, 9 post-acute care facilities, a national pharmacy benefit management company that serves 17.7 million members in 50 states, an extensive network of physician practice operations (approximately 15,000 physicians/providers and over 490 physician office/outpatient sites, other health care businesses and several foundations. Ssmh's hospital operations are located primarily in Missouri, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Illinois, and its related businesses provide health related services in 50 states. Ssmhcc is sponsored by ssm health ministries, a ministerial juridic person, which is currently composed of one franciscan sister of mary, one sister of st. Agnes, one jesuit priest, one franciscan priest, and four lay persons who collectively hold certain reserved powers over ssmh.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 86% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% 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
SUPPORTED - 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 the filing does not identify recipients for some grant dollars.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 64
- Transparency & Controls: 65
- Accountability: 92
- Sustainability: 66
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 59.6%; rating input score 60
- Program expense ratio: 65.5%; rating input score 65
- Fundraising efficiency: $92.47 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.3%; rating input score 92; 12th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- 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: 41.7%; rating input score 42; 9th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 94.7%; rating input score 95; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 7.8%; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 5.47; rating input score 86; 86th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.51; rating input score 35; 35th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 2.6%; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.2% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 13.1% per year; rating input score 100; 85th 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: 59.6% of revenue deployed · 65.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 18 of 19 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $839.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $7.9M · 39 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $35.2M reported
- Consistency: 34 of 35 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: 33 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 94 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Grant itemization coverage scored 42/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 35/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 43/100.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.