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BCBSNE strikes out hunger with Food Bank for the Heartland. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska (BCBSNE) hit it out of the park during Food Bank for the Heartland's Strike Out Hunger campaign, where employees donated 5,603 meals to help tackle food insecurity in Nebraska and western Iowa. Every June, Food Bank for the Heartland brings local businesses together in friendly competition to see which company can raise the most meals for the food bank's 93-county service area. Companies are sorted into divisions based on their size. This year, BCBSNE took third place in the Wild Cards division, which is for companies with over 1,000 employees. By donating food, funds and volunteer hours at the food bank, employees came together to make a difference in the community. "It is always a rewarding time to give back to our community in a way that goes beyond traditional healthcare," said Cayla Kelly, provider executive support specialist at BCBSNE and leader of the company's 2026 campaign participation. "It truly reflects our values as an organization, showing that we are committed to investing time and resources into causes that matter." In total, the Strike Out Hunger campaign generated 237,511 meals for residents across local communities. Nebraska and western Iowa are experiencing elevated levels of food insecurity in 2026, with 259,060 individuals, including 87,860 children, currently facing hunger. Through collaboration with volunteers, programs and local businesses like BCBSNE, Food Bank for the Heartland is working to provide nutritious meals for those in need.

Faith questioned: Norfolk nonprofit hospital paid a doctor nearly $5 million. Is it a symptom of a flawed system? Sara Gentzler, Flatwater Free Press | Jun 10, 2026 Flatwater Free Press Health scare - Faith Health, formerly known as Faith Regional Health Services, in Norfolk had the two highest paid employees of any Nebraska-headquartered nonprofit in 2024, according to a ProPublica database. Doctors at other hospitals also appeared toward the top of the list, but none came close to the two at Faith Health. The two highest-paid nonprofit employees in the state benefit from a bonus system criticized for incentivizing more medical procedures. Nebraska's state auditor calls it inexplicable. A former health insurance CEO suggests it's excessive. A veteran doctor says it's unheard of. They're reacting to what a nonprofit hospital paid its gastroenterologist in 2024: Nearly $5 million. That same hospital, Faith Health in Norfolk, paid a plastic surgeon $3.8 million. Those sums made the doctors the two highest-paid employees of any Nebraska-headquartered nonprofit that year, according to an online database. Most of their compensation came from bonus and incentive pay, at least in part determined using a commonly used calculation that is often criticized for rewarding more procedures. hospital leaders declined interview requests and did not answer specific questions emailed to them. In a statement, Chief Operating Officer Brian Blecher said that it's challenging to recruit and retain doctors in Norfolk. Faith sets salaries based on data, and physicians can earn bonuses for hard work, like at other hospitals, Blecher said. State Auditor Mike Foley called the gastroenterologist's pay "inexplicable" - and he wasn't the only one shocked by the numbers. "They're a not-for-profit," said Steven Martin, retired CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska. "Ask yourself: Isn't that a little excessive?" 'The more you do, the more you get.' Matthew Bechtold, who has been practicing gastroenterology in Missouri for over 20 years, said the highest salary he has heard for a gastroenterologist is about $1.5 million. "I don't ever hear of $5 million in our field," Bechtold said. Faith Regional Health Services, which recently rebranded as Faith Health, paid Fadi Rzouq $4.9 million, according to the hospital's most recent tax filing. The figure doesn't include retirement and other benefits. Rzouq is now listed on staff at a clinic in Texas. His specialties include pancreatic, upper gastrointestinal and liver diseases. "Good medicine begins with trust, compassion and taking the time to truly listen to patients," he's quoted as saying. Faith's tax filing shows $3.9 million of Rzouq's pay in 2024 came from bonuses and incentives. The filing also notes that physicians' "production bonuses" were tied to relative value units - part of a system that helps the federal government and insurance companies define the worth of a physician's work. A procedure, for example, has a higher RVU than an office visit. Rzouq was listed among five Faith physicians who earned those bonuses in 2024. It's typical for a hospital to set a quota for a doctor and figure bonuses based on the surplus number of RVUs they actually tally, said Bechtold. RVU-based models can encourage a doctor to do more and more procedures. Rzouq's $5 million is indeed "well above the norm" and "significantly higher than the revenue a single gastroenterologist would be expected to generate for a hospital," said Lawrence Kim, past president of the American Gastroenterological Association Institute. He suspects Rzouq had responsibilities beyond direct patient care. Flatwater asked Faith if this was the case but did not receive a response. Rzouq's pay wasn't just exceptional in his field. It also made him the highest-paid employee at any Nebraska-headquartered nonprofit that year, according to a database of tax documents created by the nonprofit news outlet ProPublica. Tristan Hartzell, a board-certified Faith Health plastic surgeon specializing in the arm, was the state's second-highest-paid nonprofit employee. The hospital reported paying him $3.8 million, including about $2.8 million in bonuses. He was also among the handful listed as receiving a "production bonus." Hartzell said in an email that he's a "highly specialized surgeon" who performs "complex procedures for patients from across Nebraska and around the country." His biography says that he is "likely the busiest replantation surgeon in the upper Midwest," and one of a few in the country who perform a specific reconstructive wrist procedure. He also specializes in treating athletes, according to his bio. Three other Faith doctors made over $1 million in 2024, and other doctors from Faith and elsewhere were among the state's highest-paid nonprofit employees, according to ProPublica. But Rzouq and Hartzell were the only physicians to land ahead of Greg McDermott, then Creighton University's men's basketball coach, and James Linder, then CEO of the Nebraska Medical Center. 'This is what I did' Ed Nierodzik, Rzouq's former patient, said he got little facetime with the doctor himself. Thinking of his experience with Rzouq still brings up strong emotions. He'd been bleeding for a week and entered Faith through its emergency room. He stayed in the hospital a week, he said, but saw Rzouq for just a few minutes when he did rounds. Rzouq stopped the bleeding, Nierodzik said. But he also banded a hemorrhoid, he said, which wasn't discussed beforehand and hadn't presented issues. Chronic issues came up after that, making it more difficult for Nierodzik to do things like go to his son's wrestling tournaments and visit the supermarket. After a year and a half of physical therapy, he said he has finally seen improvement. When a reporter ran basic information about the procedure by Bechtold, the Missouri gastroenterologist, he said the account didn't immediately raise alarm. In another case, the hospital settled a lawsuit in 2021 that alleged Rzouq didn't do what he should have to manage the care of a 67-year-old man who later died. The lawsuit alleged that Rzouq didn't take action to manage the man's risk for inflammation of his pancreas after performing a procedure and that he failed to give orders for treatment or communicate appropriately with the man and his family as symptoms arose and quickly worsened. Rzouq and the hospital denied the allegations, saying in court filings that the doctor was not negligent and that Rzouq met the standard of care. According to court documents, payment of the settlement shouldn't be interpreted as an admission of liability. "Dr. Rzouq affirmatively alleges that the medical records speak for themselves," a court document reads. In another motion, he's quoted as saying in a deposition that this was the only patient with pancreatitis he had lost in over 10 years. 'An unethical incentive' Faith, the Nebraska hospital Association and the AGA all pointed to a fundamental truth that underlies doctors' salaries: It's hard to attract physicians to rural areas. "In such areas, hospitals may offer significantly higher compensation than average," said Kim with the AGA Institute. "This is based upon the physician's total value to the health system, in order to attract good candidates." Other nonprofit hospitals in mostly rural areas of Nebraska paid some physicians in the millions in 2024, though none came close to Faith. Mary Lanning Healthcare paid a Hastings orthopedic surgeon about $1.9 million, according to its filing. A spokesperson said the surgeon also practiced sports medicine as the sole provider at a practice that had previously spread services among three doctors. Great Plains Regional Health in North Platte reported paying a neurosurgeon about $2 million. Regional West Physicians Clinic in Scottsbluff paid a neurosurgeon about $1.7 million. The strikingly high salaries in Norfolk raised questions for State Auditor Foley and others. "If you're filing a public tax return," Foley said, "seems like you could talk about: Why is that number so high?" Martin, the former health insurance executive, said that the situation in Norfolk is indicative of larger issues with the healthcare system that ultimately impact individual patients. One is that a small percentage of specialists account for much of the whole system's waste and excess care, he said, driving up premiums. Another is that a hospital can create incentives that enable those specialists. "In my opinion, that's an unethical incentive," Martin said. "If you applied that to another industry, you would find that's an unethical practice." The Flatwater Free Press is Nebraska's first independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on investigations and feature stories that matter.