Page 60 - Just Deserts

TotalCare

Dr. Lester Bellarian disliked audits as much as the next chief
executive officer, and preferred to take his medicine in measured
doses. He therefore invariably ordered an in-house audit of
TotalCare’s finances at least two months before any outside firm was
scheduled to look at the books. The financial health of his HMO was
of grave concern to the Chief (as he was addressed by almost all his
subordinates), particularly when his broker had given him an early
warning of impending difficulties in his stock market position.
The accountants working for TotalCare, having been selected by
their employer for a demonstrated complaisance in the manipulation
of debits and credits, were well aware of the Chief’s personal cash
flow problems, and prided themselves on their ability to maneuver
through the maze of Generally Accepted Accounting Procedures
toward the goal of squeezing a few thousand dollars more out of the
system for him. Their parochial professionalism, however, rarely
extended beyond recommending the usual sort of cost-cutting
measures encountered in a health maintenance organization; Dr.
Bellarian had on occasion been forced to make his own suggestions
for raising the bottom line. This he also disliked: his flight from
cosmetic surgeon to executive had not included any stopovers, no
matter how brief, in the fields of management or finance.
It was with surprise as well as pleasure, then, that he received a call
from one of the junior auditors asking for a meeting to discuss
strategies for reducing overhead. The Chief prudently pulled the
accountant’s personnel records in advance. Just like examining a
patient, he told himself; I need to see what makes this person tick
before I get involved. The folder contained all that TotalCare knew
of Rose N. Collins before she came to work for the HMO, as well as
evaluations of her work filed at regular intervals. Dr. Bellarian
perused it carefully in the minutes before she was due to arrive at his
office. Her resume and job application indicated a woman of some
independence: divorced, receiving her CPA license later in life than
usual, living in an apartment with a somewhat less than upscale
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