This story hits close to home as it addresses the industry I worked in prior to starting medical school. From 1976 to 1978 I served as the kidney transplant coordinator for the University of Illinois hospital.
For those of you who don't know, anyone with chronic renal failure qualifies for a special version of Medicare that covers nearly all their expenses including dialysis and kidney transplants.
Well it turns out Northwestern was fined $23,000, University of Chicago $115,000 and University of Illinois, where I worked, was fined nearly $3 million for manipulating diagnoses of transplant patients to get them new livers. The suit against the University of Illinois hospital said the improper diagnoses were used to meet the minimum number of liver transplants to qualify for government health insurance programs.
It seems integrity is rapidly disappearing from even the prestigious medical centers.
Reuters July 28, 2003