$22 Million in Extra Pay to Handful of Neurosurgeons Not Disclosed on UNM Sunshine Portal in Last Four Fiscal Years
Small Group of UNM Neurosurgeons “Primary Salary” Vastly Understates Their Actual Compensation – Including as Much as $5,000/day for “On Call” Pay.
This is a developing story. Expect further reporting tomorrow related to compensation and personnel.
The University of New Mexico’s Sunshine Portal has been eclipsed when it comes to getting a clear view of the compensation provided to some of its most highly paid employees.
According to the institution’s “Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico” website,
“Sunshine @ The University of New Mexico is UNM’s version of a transparency portal that allows public online access to view UNM spending, budgets, revenues, employee salaries, purchase order information and more. This portal is designed to foster governmental transparency and accountability that proactively addresses the spirit of the requirements in New Mexico Senate Bill 195 and represents areas of focus within the Bill.”
Most UNM employees’ compensation can be determined by searching the UNM’s Sunshine Portal’s Online Salary Book.
It reveals “Primary” annual salary amounts.
However, that search will not reveal the sources of extra compensation some employees receive … especially some of the employees making hundreds of thousands of dollars in “primary annual salaries.”
Take for instance doctors employed by the UNM School of Medicine’s Neurosurgery program.
The Candle recently received records which show that Neurosurgery physicians have received as much as 2.6 times their base or primary salary in compensation for at least the last four fiscal years.
For example some of the physicians primary annual salary may be listed as $500,000, when in fact they are being paid closer to $1,300,000, from incentive pay, extra shifts, and call pay.
Call Pay as High as $675,000 in a Year to a Single Doctor in Addition to Base Pay.
By far, call pay has been the major source of the additional income, with several physicians piling on $350,000 to $675,000 in call pay in a single year.
Call pay can be as much as $5,000 a shift. Typically, the neurosurgeon is to be available to be at the hospital within 30 minutes and/or available by phone … and cannot consume alcohol.
(More on call pay at UNMH in upcoming reporting.)
Neurosurgeons Chad Cole and Christian Ricks, were two of the highest recipients of the extra pay over those four years.
The base salary currently listed in UNM’s Sunshine Portal’s Online Salary Book is $553,590, for Cole, and $500,310, for Ricks.
The chart below represents compensation (including incentive, extra shifts, and call pay) in ADDITION to their base salaries.
| Name | UNM FY 2022 Extra Pay | UNM FY 2023 Extra Pay | UNM FY 2024 Extra Pay | UNM FY 2025 Extra Pay (First Nine Months of FY Only) | Four Years Total Extra Pay |
| Chad Cole, MD | $ 992,249 | $ 1,023,329 | $ 997,494 | $ 757,740 | $ 3,770,812 |
| Christian Ricks, MD | $ 392,150 | $ 504,220 | $ 774,125 | $ 590,983 | $ 2,261,478 |
(Note: The Extra Pay identified above for FY 2025 is not the entire amount as it only reflects the first nine (9) months of the fiscal year, as that is what UNM provided in response to an Inspection of Public Records Act request prior to the end of FY 2025)
It is important to note that UNM’s Sunshine Portal’s Online Salary Book, which the University promotes as its commitment to transparency, ONLY includes the compensation described as “Primary” salary (which is listed in the UNM IPRA response as “Base” salary).
The following is an example of the compensation information The Candle received from UNM in Response to an Inspection of Public Records Act request for the School of Medicine Neurosurgery Department Surgeons for four fiscal years; the list below is data for UNM Fiscal Year 2024.
Fiscal Year 2024
| Name | Base | Incentive | Extra Shifts | Call Pay | Total |
| Ariana Barkley, MD (See Note Below) | $457,764 | $99,000 | $ 0 | $382,472 | $939,237 |
| James Botros, MD | $526,106 | $99,000 | $ 0 | $421,045 | $1,046,152 |
| Andrew Carlson, MD (See Note Below) | $632,413 | $140,250 | $ 0 | $247,250 | $1,019,913 |
| Chad Cole, MD | $596,941 | $538,166 | $7,568 | $451,760 | $1,594,436 |
| Sheila Eshraghi, MD | $437,123 | $145,750 | $ 0 | $379,500 | $962,373 |
| Michael Kogan, MD, PhD | $528,820 | $114,999 | $ 0 | $393,760 | $1,037,581 |
| Christian Ricks, MD | $480,927 | $99,000 | $ 0 | $675,125 | $1,255,053 |
| Matt Robinson, MD (See Note Below) | $111,232 | $26,500 | $ 0 | $47,270 | $185,002 |
| Meic H. Schmidt, MD, MBA, FAANS, FACS | $905,600 | $183,333 | $ 0 | $354,871 | $1,443,805 |
| Peter Shin, MD, MS, MBA | $542,677 | $100,000 | $ 0 | $383,850 | $1,026,527 |
Notes: – Ariana Barkley, MD, Andrew Carlson, MD, and Meic Schmidt, MD, no longer work for UNM. The data listed for Matt Robinson, MD, represents compensation for a partial year.
In further reporting on this matter, The Candle will be publishing the other three years of information which will include a full years calculated projection for FY 2025, as the information received only covered approximately the first three quarters of that fiscal year (nine months).