Page 61 - Just Deserts

TotalCare

address. During her two years with TotalCare she had proven herself
worthy of responsibility far in advance of her salary; the performance
reviews by her superior were quite favorable. This was obviously no
wet-behind-the-ears kid fresh out of state college.
He put the folder aside and scowled at his watch. Timing was
everything, he decided, but you needed more than a vague trend
analysis to decide whether to run with the bulls or the bears. Buying
on margin had seemed like a good way to make a killing in the
market; the economy had not fallen into line with his expectations,
however, and he was rapidly approaching a day of reckoning. Past
performance, as the prospectus always pointed out in very fine print,
is no guarantee of future returns.
Ms. Collins was announced via intercom and entered the office
briskly. The Chief could not remember if he had ever met the
woman, but, being a cranky and fastidious bachelor himself, he noted
with approval her severe hairdo and no-nonsense navy blue suit. He
stood up behind his desk for less than a second. Despite her flat
heels they were virtually the same height.
“Please sit down. What have you got for me?”
She sat down in a plush visitor’s chair and popped open her
attaché case.
“Dr. Bellarian—may I call you Chief? Everyone else does—thank
you—Chief, in my time here as an internal auditor I have examined
many facets of TotalCare’s operations. Perhaps I overstepped the
boundaries of my job description, but I felt it my duty to go beyond
specific assignments and get a picture of the entire financial flow,
from billing to plant overhead to dispensary. Let me assure you I did
all this on my own time. I’m only telling you this so you don’t think
that I have been avoiding work that should have been done on
company time.”
He nodded noncommittally, unsure of where her remarks were
headed. The HMO always stayed strictly within the letter of the law
and the cozy embrace of HMO industry regulators; no chance for a
snooping employee to find an irregularity so material it would
warrant blowing the whistle. Providing medical care within the
current legal latitudes of corporate accountability left plenty of wide-
open spaces where profit could be gathered and, if necessary, hidden.
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