"Well, miss Sanz," Dr. Franz Akermann (better known as F.Ake) was checking Nui Sanz's file. He was a man remarkably similar to G.Reed, but he used glasses and a lab coat, "apparently your health state is fine, under your circumstances, but I'd like to make some more tests to be sure."
"Oh, doctor, that's what you say, but I feel as bad as always, to be honest," Nui Sanz was lying in bed, tired enough to get up.
"That must be the chemotherapy. Or your medication," F.Ake said without paying attention to her.
"Maybe; you've changed it so many times, but it could also be because all that testing. It's like you don't know what's happening to me."
"We only do it in order to give you the best posible treatment," F.Ake said absently. "And don't you worry; we have the best oncology department on our country."
"Yes, I know," Nui Sanz replied, "that's why I came here, and I hope I came earlier, but those live assholes tricked me. If I had continued with their treatment, I think I would be already dead."
F.Ake grineed.
"What matters is that you're in good hands right now," he said while he was thinking which pricy and unnecessary test he could do to her. "Well, I'm going to schedule all your tests. You can rest for now."
"I can't do anything else… Even though I feel you're charging me even for breathing."
"Health has no price," F.Ake said with a sly grin and got out of the room.
--------------------------
"Because of you we've lost so many patients!" one investor yelled and hit the table with both his fists.
"Yes, your strategy was supposed to make us win more money, but we are losing it instead!" another investor yelled, but G. Reed was too busy going through a list of all the tests available at the hospital to listen to them. "In fact, we're considering to get you out of the board of directors."
G.Reed circled some tests he could Schedule for Nui Sanz.
"Mr. Reed?"
G.Reed kept looking and circling more tests from the list.
"We're fucking talking to you!" some investor yelled, and G.Reed raised his head. All investors seemed very upset with him.
"If money is the issue here," G.Reed said without paying any atention, "why don't you tell the doctors to make all kinds of tests to their patients?"
"Well, yeah, it's not a bad idea, though," said one of the investors. "But how many tests can we make them without them knowing we're scamming them? People's not that stupid."
"Yes, it is. That's why they come to us. If someone with a fancy lab coat tells them there's a small chance that their symptoms are due to cancer and they need to do some studies to check that, they will most likely believe them. And if they don't, what will they do? We have the best oncology department in the country. If anyone knows about cancer, it is us."
"What?!" an investor exclaimed. "If we do that, we would be risking our reputation!"
"No, we won't," G.Reed said with a sly grin. "In fact, we would be improving our hospital's reputation. You see: If we do more tests to detect cancer, we will most likely find more cancer cases (even if the patients did not come for that), and our cancer detection rate will increase. And yes, the percentage of negative studies will also increase, but this will be seen as a positive because it means that such patients don't have cancer. In other words: if a cancer test is positive, great news: we detected cancer so we can treat it, and if it's negative, great news: the patient is cancer-free, so there's nothing to worry about. It's a win-win situation, and it can apply to most tests, really."
Some of the investors were convinced by G. Reed's logic.
But not all.
"We still can't make that many tests to our patients; with that they'd end up distrusting us."
G.Reed grinned.
"And what are they going to do? Ask for a second opinion? They'd have to pay for all the test we made them do, and then go to another hospital where other doctors will check their cases and make them do even more studies. It'll be just a waste of time.
"But I guess you're right: we can't rely that much on tests, so we can also change their meds once in a while. We sell them, I don't know, 30 pills of something, and when they used just 10, we change their prescriptions. There are lots of different meds that do basically the same, right? And, because they didn't used those 20, we can give them to another patient."
Now almost all investors were convinced.
"And we have to raise our prices again."
But those words ruined it all.
"Are you stupid or what?!"
"Do you want us to lose more patients?!"
"If we do that, we'll have to close the hospital!"
"Just get the fuck outta here!"
"You're gonna ruin us!"
The investors kept yelling at him, and G.Reed asked them to be quiet.
And, after a while, they did.
"Yes, I know," G.Reed said, "it's a risky strategy and all, but the rest of the hospitals don't know it. If we continue to raise our prices, they sooner or later will think our strategy is a successful one, so they'll raise their prices too. And if all hospitals charge as much as we do, patients won't have another option but to pay. The only thing we need to do is to keep raising our prices."
"So we're just bluffing."
"Yes, but don't worry," G.Reed grinned again, "I know a thing or two about casinos, and believe me if I tell you I know how to gamble."