Chapter 5 - The Money Behind the Medicine
CardioVance Medical had paid Blake far more than $418,000.
That was merely what he had disclosed.
Independent auditors found another $760,000 routed through two consulting firms that subcontracted Morgan Clinical Education LLC.
One was called Hartwell Strategies.
The other, Bellerose Clinical Partners.
Neither appeared on Blake’s hospital conflict-of-interest forms.
Emily stared at the spreadsheet.
“Why split payments?”
Auditor Selena Price answered.
“To make the relationship less obvious, perhaps. We need records before drawing conclusions.”
Walter sat beside her.
“What about Marcus?”
Selena hesitated.
“There are payments to an entity he controls.”
Emily closed her eyes.
Walter went still.
“How much?”
“Three hundred twenty thousand dollars.”
“Company?”
“MG Health Advisory.”
Walter knew the LLC.
Marcus used it for outside speaking and board work.
“From CardioVance?”
“Indirectly. Hartwell Strategies.”
Walter looked toward the window.
His son.
His surgeon.
Same money trail.
Emily asked, “Were these payments disclosed?”
“No.”
Walter stood.
“I’ll talk to Marcus.”
Emily immediately said, “No.”
He turned.
“He’s my son.”
“He is CFO of the institution being investigated.”
“All the more reason—”
“No.”
Emily stepped between him and the door.
“You confronted him emotionally yesterday. He knows we’re looking.”
Walter bristled.
“I know how to speak to my own child.”
“That’s exactly the problem.”
The words hit.
Emily softened.
“Dad, use outside counsel. Preserve records first.”
Walter hated it.
But he listened.
The hospital engaged an external law firm, Bellamy Pierce, to conduct an independent investigation reporting to a special committee of disinterested directors.
Marcus was instructed not to delete records.
His access to vendor-payment systems was temporarily restricted.
His reaction was immediate.
“You’re suspending me?”
Walter stood with Emily while outside counsel delivered the notice.
“No,” attorney Claire Donnelly said. “You remain CFO. Certain financial controls are being reassigned pending review.”
“This is humiliation.”
“This is preservation.”
Marcus looked at Walter.
“You’re doing this because of Blake.”
“I’m doing it because your company received money from a vendor connected to hospital purchases.”
Marcus’s mouth tightened.
“It was advisory work.”
“What work?”
“Market analysis.”
“Show us.”
“I will.”
“When?”
“When I speak to counsel.”
Walter almost smiled grimly.
“That’s wise.”
Marcus stared.
He had expected his father to demand answers.
Walter had finally learned not to.
The power reversal unsettled him.
Across town, Blake met CardioVance executive Colin Mercer in a private dining room at a Back Bay hotel.
Colin looked furious.
“Your privileges were suspended?”
“Temporarily.”
“Do you understand what this does to us?”
Blake laughed.
“To you?”
“Your utilization numbers drove the Vantage program.”
“I built the program.”
“You were paid to educate physicians.”
“I did.”
“You were not paid to create investigations.”
Blake leaned forward.
“Then your company should have handled Lang correctly.”
Colin’s face hardened.
“We did.”
“You took the failed ring.”
“At your hospital’s authorization.”
“Marcus authorized it.”
“Then why are you worried?”
Colin lowered his voice.
“Because the device still exists.”
Blake froze.
“What?”
“We didn’t destroy it.”
“You told me—”
“I told you compliance retained it.”
“Where?”
“Corporate legal storage.”
Blake stared.
Peter Lang’s failed ring.
The physical evidence he believed gone.
Colin continued.
“And the FDA requested records from that production lot.”
Blake’s fingers tightened around his glass.
“Why?”
“Three anchor failures.”
“Three?”
“Possibly five.”
“You told me Lang was isolated.”
“That was fourteen months ago.”
Blake sat back.
If the Vantage Flex device had a manufacturing defect, that helped him clinically.
It could prove Peter Lang’s complication was not surgical negligence.
But it created another problem.
Blake had helped suppress the device-event report.
Not because he knew of a widespread defect.
Because reporting it threatened a lucrative study and CardioVance relationship.
A patient had died.
And Blake had chosen reputation before transparency.
Colin looked at him.
“What exactly did you write in Lang’s second operative report?”
Blake said nothing.
“That bad?”
“I described tissue failure.”
“Was there tissue failure?”
“Yes.”
“Was there also device failure?”
A pause.
“Yes.”
Colin closed his eyes.
“You omitted it.”
“I didn’t know if the fracture happened during explant.”
“Then why didn’t you report uncertainty?”
Blake’s voice hardened.
“Because I was trying to keep a patient alive.”
“He died.”
Blake slammed his hand on the table.
“I KNOW.”
Other diners looked over.
Colin lowered his voice.
“You need a lawyer.”
Blake laughed bitterly.
“Everybody keeps telling me that.”
Back at Grant Medical Center, Walter visited Peter Lang’s widow.
He did not send staff.
He went himself.
Elaine Lang lived in a modest house in Brookline.
She opened the door and recognized him immediately.
“Mr. Grant.”
“Mrs. Lang.”
“Why are you here?”
“Because I think this hospital may have failed your husband.”
She stared.
Then stepped aside.
Peter’s photograph stood above the fireplace.
Elaine brought Walter a folder.
“I kept everything.”
Insurance statements.
Discharge paperwork.
Letters.
One page was a patient-relations complaint.
Elaine had written it three weeks after Peter died.
I was told the device failed during the second operation. Why does the final report blame Peter’s heart?
Walter read it twice.
“What response did you receive?”
Elaine handed him a letter.
It thanked her for her concern and said Grant Medical Center found no evidence of equipment malfunction.
Signed:
MARCUS GRANT
Chief Financial Officer
For Executive Risk Committee
Walter stared.
“Why would the CFO answer a clinical complaint?”
“That’s what I wondered.”
Then Elaine handed him another envelope.
“Dr. Morgan visited me.”
Walter looked up.
“When?”
“Two months after Peter died.”
“What did he say?”
“He said lawsuits destroy doctors and hospitals.”
Walter felt anger rise.
Elaine continued.
“He offered to have the Grant Foundation pay my mortgage.”
Walter went still.
“Our foundation?”
“One hundred eighty thousand dollars.”
“Did you accept?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he didn’t sound generous.”
Elaine’s eyes hardened.
“He sounded afraid.”
Walter left the house shaken.
He called Emily.
“Check the Grant Foundation.”
“For what?”
“Discretionary family-assistance grants fourteen months ago.”
“Dad—”
“Look for Elaine Lang.”
Emily searched.
There was no payment to Elaine.
But there was a $180,000 “patient compassion reserve” transfer authorized shortly after Peter’s death.
The money did not go to Elaine.
May you like
It went to MG Health Advisory.
Marcus’s company.
