Page 2 of Ellie 1
Gone was the good ol’ boy smile and charm, a tight one replacing it and simmering anger filling his eyes. “Let’s remember our places here.”
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Yes, let’s. I’myour boss.” I snorted when he opened his mouth. “Read your contract. I hired you. I have sole discretion to fire you. The board has no say. I’ve told you that before and reminded you that you need to listen to me no matter how many of them you golf with. I am not just ‘the paper-pushing medical bills admin,’ Dr. Hastings.
“I’m the CAO of this hospital. That’s Chief Administrating Officer. That means the buck stops here. I’m in charge of all of it basically. You might look down on it, but the smart people don’t. And while you are a good pediatrician, you are not theonlygood pediatrician. You aren’t even the only good pediatrician we havehere.
“And honestly, you come with so many headaches, firing you and hiring an okay pediatrician without headaches we can train to be a great pediatrician sounds amazing. So please hear me that this is your last chance because the woman who was just in my office was yoursixthinstance of insurance fraud in two months.
“So that’s just walking in my door because you billed it as procedures or visits for things not possible. You are aliabilityto the hospital, and I will not allow it. It ends now or you’re gone. Do you understand? This flirting with the single moms to get more easy patient visits that you can bill to insurances isoveror you are fired.”
“Wait, wait, we’ve got a miscommunication or misunderstanding here because the last thing I want is insurance fraud too—Ell—Ms. Reed,” he said firmly, finally seeing the writing on the wall.
“Because you don’tlistento me. You brush me off as the billing department paper pushers and Auntie Ellie,” I reminded him, having a hard time keeping my tone even. Normally, I excelled at that. It was honestly one of my greatest talents.
But Hastings was seriously such a damn douche.
“Okay, you’re right that I’ve been dismissive. I’ll apologize and fix that and I’m listening now.” He held his hands up in surrender as if knowing he was about to deserve wrath. “Please walk me through what happened in your office just now.”
I mentally ground my jaw and gave him the names of the patients and the woman. “Your office billed her insurancefor two treatments for Spellengitits infections, Dr. Hastings.” I eased back when he flinched. “Glad you see the problem.”
“No one under twenty has ever been diagnosed with that condition,” he grumbled.
“Exactly. So how does a pediatrician bill for the treatment of it when the patients are five and eight?” I said with my eyebrow still raised. “That’s insurance fraud, and if six of those instances have come all the way up to my attention intwo months, there are more cases. We have more problems, and it has to stop.”
“Agreed and immediately,” he said firmly, bobbing his head. “I don’t want to lose my license either. Of course not, and—I just don’t know how this could have happened or what to really—this is just so out of the blue and—”
“Except it’snot,” I reminded him, almost losing my temper finally. “I’ve reprimanded you about it repeatedly and your office. Except you brush me off and crack jokes about—”
“Okay, I get it now and—”
“Interrupt me one more time and you’re fired,” I warned him. “You have brushed me off enough. This time you willlistento the whole lecture and pay attention. You will hear me what the problem is and which of your staff is the main issue. Mostly you need to stop flirting and being friends with them and make them do theirjobs.”
He swallowed loudly and slowly sat down, making it clear he was ready for what I had to say.
And I had a lot to say. I was a patient woman. I knew there was a lot of bullshit when it came to hospitals—even to just medical facilities or doctors’ offices. But there was an extra layer of it when it was a huge hospital like ours that was one of the best in the nation that people traveled from all over the world to get treatment from some of our doctors.
But Hastings had pushed too hard for too long and on too many of my hot buttons, especially the one that could get thehospital in serious trouble while being dismissive about the whole thing. So I was done being patient and understanding.
Hell, I hoped I got to fire him and a few of his staff now. I was already planning on looking for his replacement, and the board could kiss my jiggling ass.
“Next week’s appointments will not be paid out to you and the bonus structure,” I told him as he headed to leave with the written write-ups and formal warnings. I gave him a look daring him to try me when he spun around and opened his mouth. “I suggest you spend the time reassessing your appointments.”
“I can’t help if the parents make appointments,” he defended.
“No, but I suggest you check their level of insurance coverage before you flirt with the damn moms,” I drawled. “And for every one that comes back to my office and I have to deal with, it’s another week.” I gave a half shrug when he opened his mouth. “Or quit. Tell the boardwhyI’m pushing this and the liability this is for their cushy jobs and even your golfing buddies will agree.”
He ground his jaw and gave a swift nod. “I understand, Ms. Reed. It won’t happen again or people will be fired. I’ll make sure to keep you updated on the situation and cleanup.”
“I’m glad to hear you’re finally going to take this seriously.” Because I’d finally hit his money. Asshole.
But this was why people hated me in the hospital. People wouldn’t talk about whathe’ddone or that I’d given himfive chancesto clean up the mess he was making for me and the hospital. Oh no, it would be the blob bitch, Ellie—paper-pushing Ellie thinking herself important and smacking around a doctor.
All the same normal bullshit. The kicker of it all?
None of it would come from me.
The asshole would break confidentiality on himself to bitch and make me the villain… And it would work. Instead of peoplebeing smart and understanding that he was an asshole and I’d done the right thing to protect everyone’s jobs, they’d talk shit about me.
Honestly, I should have acted sooner, but I hated dealing with the fallout. I really did.
