Hightower Lowdown

Richard Scrushy is head dog at HealthSouth, the nation’s biggest operator of rehab hospitals and clinics. With his fat salary, luxurious home, lavish lifestyle, and conspicuous philanthropy, he’s long been assumed to be skimming cream from the public health system.
Then a few months ago he up and sold nearly $100 million worth of HealthSouth shares just one month before the company informed stockholders that a change in its billing procedures would—ahem—be “unpleasant “ for them.
Indeed, the stock promptly fell from about $16 to $4. It seems that Scrushy had been billing Medicare for individual therapy sessions when, in fact, his therapists had been treating patients in group sessions.
Ah, but now, all is made well. A New York Times headline declared: “Inquiry Exonerates Chairman of HealthSouth.” Good press! But down in the story we learn that the “inquiry” had been conducted by a law firm that HealthSouth itself had hired.
The company refused to release the report, instead issuing only an edited version of the concluding paragraph. Even this was far from exculpatory, saying only that the in-house investigators “uncovered no oral or written document” to prove that Scrushy is a scoundrel.