It’s sometimes hard to do the right thing when a boatload of money is at stake. I recently read a shockingly frank opinion column published in Modern Healthcare of Aaron Beam, co-founder of HealthSouth. In 1984 he co-founded HealthSouth Corp with Richard Scrushy. Within 10 years the two of them grew HealthSouth into a billion-dollar company. They had outpatient centers, rehab hospitals and surgery centers in 50 states. Beam retired as CFO in 1997 after taking part in the fraud that began in 1996.
“I am sorry to admit that the fraud began on my watch. It has taken me years to really understand why I let myself be a part of such a horrible act of mistrust,” writes Beam. “After losing possessions, serving prison time and fully coming to terms with what happened, I understand that I have committed a terrible white-collar crime that hurt many people.”
Wow. You don’t hear an admission of guilt so frank very often. It is refreshing to hear. A pervasive greed amongst corporations as evidence by Enron to today’s subprime mortgage meltdown is tearing our economy down and eroding the public trust of business markets.
Ethics play an especially large role in healthcare. All hospitals have mighty and grand mission statements, but inside the board room, does the desire to gain additional market share or revenue outshine the mission of helping those in need? How are the two balanced? A nun running a Catholic hospital always said “without margin, there is no mission.” Mission and margin need to go hand in hand. Healthcare combined with corporate greed seems especially noxious.
Beam writes, “When you work for a company that stresses profits at all costs, it is a potentially destructive situation….You must seriously consider the company’s values.”
Well spoken. Too bad Beam had to learn those lessons from a jail cell.
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