J. Gonzalez - The Corporation

A moment later he heard the key slip into the lock and the front door opened. He heard footsteps and he frowned. There was more than just his mother showing up to help out around the house. If she brought his grandmother and his Aunt Becky over he was gonna be pissed. “Ma, who else did you bring?”

The footsteps headed down the short hallway of the trailer, and when the well-dressed men stopped in front of the doorway to his bedroom Michael’s heart leaped into his throat. He sat bolt upright in his bed, unmindful of the surgical wound in his groin. “Who are you?” His voice squeaked in surprise and sudden fear.

“I’m Matthew Hall, from Red Rose Medical Insurance,” one of the men said. He gestured to another man next to him. “This is Bill Moreau. The rest of the men here are Red Rose Insurance Adjusters. We’re here about your case.”

Michael relaxed a little bit. “Damn, you scared the shit out of me. I thought you were my mother.”

The men entered the room and surrounded him. Bill Moreau was a young man, perhaps a few years older than Michael, and he was carrying what appeared to be a black medical bag. He opened it and began rummaging around for something as Matthew Hall addressed Michael. “We have some papers to give you.” Matthew nodded at one of the other men, who thrust a sheaf of papers at him.

Bill Moreau found what he was looking for and grabbed Michael’s left arm. Michael started. “Hey, what’s up?”

“Relax,” Bill Moreau said as he quickly applied an alcohol swab to Michael’s left arm and deftly gave him a shot from a syringe he was concealing.

“What are you doing!” Michael yelled. He was suddenly being restrained by the other two men in the room as the injection was administered.

When Bill was finished administering the injection, he replaced the syringe in his bag and the men released their grip from them. Michael felt a flare of fear rise inside him. Something’s not right here… something’s not right…

“We’re enclosing bills for your surgery, hospital stay, your consultations with Crossroads Medical Group and Lancaster Urological Group, and Bill Moreau’s house call,” Matthew Hale said, tapping the papers that had been dropped on his chest. “Please remit payment within thirty days as directed.”

“What?” Michael was confused. Bills for surgery? Hospital stay? That was supposed to have been covered! Dr. Beck was supposed to have taken care of all that. And Bill Moreau’s house call? “What did you inject me with?” he asked, rubbing his arm.

“The injection will show up as a separate line item in one of those bills,” Matthew Hale said, his voice crisp and business-like. “Don’t worry, you weren’t injected with any drug. It’s just the cancer cells which were found in the biopsy of your right testicle yesterday in the lab.”

The implication of what Matthew just said hit him like a ton of bricks. Michael felt his face go slack with shock. “You’re kidding.”

“I’m not.” Matthew Hale’s features were stony, completely devoid of emotion. “Red Rose denied your original claim. That was our original business decision. Therefore, the bills for your surgery and hospital stay, as well as pre and post care, not to mention Bill Moreau’s services here today to deliver what was yours in the first place.”

The absurdity of it all was so overwhelming, so wrong , that Michael was stunned. He wasn’t a highly-educated man but he knew that it was unethical for a business, especially a health care business, to jeopardize the health of their members. “This is insane!” It was the only thing he could think of to say.

“No, it isn’t,” Matthew Hale said. “It’s just business.”

“But I’ve got fucking cancer !” Michael screamed.

“And Red Rose denied your original claim,” Matthew Hale said. “Had you and your health care provider operated within the parameters of our contract, this wouldn’t be happening.”

“But I’ve got cancer you nitwit !” Michael was growing frantic; he could feel his face growing hot, his breathing growing heavy.

“Original claim denied.” Matthew looked and sounded more like a robot than he did a human being.

“I—” Michael was at a loss for what to say. Except for the sharp pinprick in his left arm from the shot, he felt fine. He didn’t think Bill Moreau had injected him with any kind of drug, and if he did there was going to be hell to pay.

The well-suited men from Red Rose stepped out of the bedroom. Matthew Hale was the last to leave. “Oh, another thing. Due to the fact that you violated our contract, Red Rose is dropping you as a member. Please pay all claims promptly.”

“ Fuck you !” Michael shouted. He threw the mass of bills at Matthew Hale.

Matthew’s features didn’t change. “Regardless, you’re still liable financially for this due to the fact that Red Rose denied this claim. Please pay all bills—”

“ Get the hell out of here !” Michael made an attempt to get out of bed and a stab of pain rocked through his groin and lower abdomen.

“—promptly. Thank you.” Matthew Hale stepped out of the bedroom, and as Michael gritted his teeth against the pain in his groin he heard their footsteps receding down the hall and out the door.

DESPITE THE FACT that it was three a.m. and Michelle Dowling had dropped off to sleep immediately after laying down in bed at eight-fifteen p.m., she was wide awake when the alarm went off.

She went into the bathroom and quickly brushed her teeth and gargled with Listerine. She applied deodorant and dressed quickly in a pair of blue jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt. She ran a brush through her hair, inspected herself in the mirror briefly, then went back into the room and pulled on a pair of white gym socks and put her tennis shoes on. As she dressed, she thought about what happened and what she’d learned from Donald and Jay shortly after she returned to her room after the meeting.

Things had worked out at the meeting as Alan said they would. When they returned from the Ladies Room, Michelle quickly found her seat and sat down, her attention riveted on the presentation which Nick Dowd was still conducting. She barely noticed Alan leaning forward and whispering something in Sam Greenberg’s ear, but she caught a glimpse of her boss’s face as he nodded at what Alan was telling him. A moment later he was giving his undivided attention to Nick’s presentation. That told Michelle he’d bought whatever bullshit story Alan told him. That was good enough for her.

She talked to Donald the moment she got to her room and learned the latest: Crossroads Medical Group had fired him and two other doctors over the Michael Brennan case; he and Jay had gone searching for Michael and later came upon his trailer park and saw two police cars and an ambulance. Donald had gone out and talked to a neighbor woman who said Michael had called 911 and reported a break-in and an assault. Donald and Jay had followed the ambulance to Ephrata General Hospital and Donald was able to speak to Michael briefly. “He was hysterical,” he related to Michelle. “He claimed four guys from Red Rose broke into his house and held him down while one of them gave him an injection of what he claimed was his cancer cells. Lancaster General is running tests on him now and I called Red Rose to find out what the hell was going on. They wouldn’t talk to me, said Michael was no longer covered, either. I spoke to the attending physician and gave him a brief outline of what’s been happening, and he’s promised to monitor Michael’s prognosis.”

“Is he going to die?” Michelle had asked. When she heard Michael was injected with his own cancer cells she’d gasped.