can only operate on the income they generate. The cost of professionals, nurses, supplies and facilities is about at break even point. Any revenue that is left on the table through poor billing practices or services without reimbursement sinks a clinic or hospital.

I was a controller of a medical clinic

where the CEO of the corporation was using the hospitals as a personal slush fund.

A similar situation occurred in the town where I live. While the CEO was flying around in private jets, buying expensive vehicles, and living in an exclusive gated community, he did everything possible to ruin the hospital (e.g., selling the CT-Scan to a private shell corporation he set up, then leasing the scanner back to the hospital at a ridiculous markup). This particular owner has a track record of buying hospitals, extracting the assets, and declaring bankruptcies dating back to the 1990s. The only difference is that EmpowerHMS has acquired about a dozen hospitals and they all crashed simultaneously, while the owner of the hospital where I live would only have 3 or 4 hospitals running at one time and he would shift the money around like a shell game. Unfortunately, the owner was a lawyer who knew how to manipulate the system because he really deserves to be in jail.