The death of Bernard Tyson, Chairman, and CEO of Kaiser Permanente on Sunday is a loss to the healthcare industry. Tyson was a unique CEO in many ways including the whopping salary and net worth he commanded.

According to reports, Tyson’s compensation was more than $16 million in 2017. It made him the highest-paid nonprofit health system executive in the nation. Bernard Tyson’s compensation surged 66 percent from 2015 to 2016, from $6 million to $10 million, added a report.

Tyson was the company's first black CEO and a known champion for accessible healthcare, racial justice, and workplace diversity.

“An outstanding leader, visionary and champion for high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans, Bernard was a tireless advocate for Kaiser Permanente, our members and the communities we serve,” the company said in a statement Sunday.

Time Magazine named Tyson to its “100 Most Influential People” in 2017 and among 50 top leaders in healthcare in 2018.

High salary in the healthcare sector

Kaiser Permanente has been one of the largest employers in the Bay Area in 2018. The integrated managed care consortium, based in Oakland, California was founded by Henry J. Kaiser in 1945.

Of late, labor disputes and strike threats bothered Kaiser Permanente with critics airing the view that the nonprofit health system is aping the for-profit counterparts and deviating from its foundational ideals.

The latest data suggests not only there was a steep spike in CEO salary in the healthcare industry but the sector is expanding its attraction to job seekers with its stability and decent salary prospects.

Although the net worth of healthcare leaders may not match Kylie Jenner's net worth, the latest data is appreciable as it shows brilliant growth of compensation in the healthcare industry.

Researcher Julia Cooper compiled the data on the highest-paid employees at health care systems in the Bay Area without any salary calculator. She tracked IRS Form 990s filed by non-profit health care systems on total compensation taking 2017 or 2016, as the most recent year available.

The compensation covers basic pay, bonus and incentive compensation, retirement, deferred compensation, nontaxable benefits, and other reportable compensation.

Kaiser Permanente operates in eight states and the District of Columbia as the largest managed care organization in the United States.

Healthcare protest
People rally in favor of single-payer healthcare for all Californians as the US Senate prepares to vote on the Senate GOP health care bill, outside the office of California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, June 27, 2017 in South Gate, California. Rendon announced last week that Senate Bill SB 562 - the high-profile effort to establish a single-payer healthcare system in California - would be shelved, saying it was "incomplete." ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images

As of December 31, 2018, Kaiser Permanente had 12.2 million health plan members using Kaiser Permanente login seeking service of its 39 medical centers and nearly 700 medical facilities.

Health care in the United States is provided by many organizations. Facilities are largely owned by private sector businesses. Among community hospitals in the United States, 58 percent are non-profit, while 21 percent are government-owned, and 21 percent are for-profit.

Healthcare coverage in the U.S. is provided by a combination of private health insurance and public health coverage such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Among the healthcare players include United Healthcare offering healthcare products and insurance services while the federal government's healthcare gov delivers affordable medicare.