Hospitals

Since the publication of my report, Sticker Shock, in 2010 on non-profit hospital accounting detailing the abusive accounting mechanisms in place (read: policies) which reward a select few at the top with outrageous salaries, bonuses, first-class travel, golf club memberships, housing allowances, personal loans, chauffer-driven limousines, tax indemnifications, specially funded split-dollar life insurance policies, and deferred compensation packages in the millions at the expense of pursuing the poor, un, and under-insured to the point of inflicting stress, bankruptcy, wage garnishment, further illness, and death for payment of hospital bills puffed up by as much as 1,500%, things have gotten much worse for people needing medical care. The breaking point for me was the story of Wesley Warren, Jr., a 45 year old man from Las Vegas with a 132 pound scrotum (roughly the size of 8 bowling balls). Here was a guy, who for four years dressed his engorged ball in an upside down zip-up hoodie because it couldn’t fit into his pants and carted this enormous appendage around in a wheelbarrow just to go to the store for milk and coffee.