Healthcare sector severance

Healthcare severance is the least standardized of the major sectors, and the state-law floor matters more here than the corporate formula. The large employers split into two camps: those that file a plan with the SEC, and those that pay on an unpublished, employee-reported basis.

CVS Health sits in the first camp. Its grade-tier Non-Store Severance Plan — filed as Exhibit 10.1 to the Q3 2023 10-Q — pays 2 weeks base plus 2 per year for non-exempt staff (capped at 13 weeks), 4 plus 2 for exempt analysts (capped at 20), and a director tier capped at 44 weeks, where the cap costs a long-tenured director tens of thousands against an uncapped accrual. HCA Healthcare sits in the second: no SEC-filed formula, an employee-reported range of 1 to 4 weeks per year, and a Tennessee right-to-work floor with no statutory PTO-payout requirement — the weakest worker-protection baseline among major US healthcare employers. The differential between a Rhode Island headquarters (accrued-vacation payout required) and a Tennessee one is a structural fact of the package, not a negotiation point.