Being Ruthless - Healthcare in the LA area

A while back I wrote about the word ruthless. This article indeed shows a ruthless man. Whether his motivations are for the good of society or his own empire is not a judgment one can make. Still, it is a good example on how being ruthless is portrayed as bucking a system that needs to be bucked and building an empire.

What is more extraordinary is how Reddy is building his empire. Modern healthcare is largely based on the model in which insurers seek to control costs by paying fixed amounts to doctors and hospitals. Reddy is tearing that down.

When Reddy's company, Prime Healthcare Services Inc., takes over a hospital, it typically cancels insurance contracts, allowing the hospital to collect steeply higher reimbursements. It has suspended services — such as chemotherapy treatments, mental health care and birthing centers — that patients need but aren't lucrative.

I think Reddy's challenges are good - but he's certainly not paying his debt to man forward. His attitude:

Patients, he said, may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford.

"Why is it in healthcare we expect to have the same?" he asked. "It's an entitlement mentality. Why aren't the same people asking why everybody shouldn't be eating the same foods, or have the same clothes or same homes? Those are as essential services as healthcare."

This is a very petty and small minded view. Yes, you can justify intellectually, but karmacally, it does not help human evolution. If Reddy cared less about growing millions and being a powerful man, he could take his millions and work to change the system in another ways - one that benefits both his organization and new paradigm and the people doctors heal.

Click through for the Hippocratic oath.
h/t to DangerGirl.