Confession

      For most of my career as a journalist, I took shameless pleasure in the fear and status that came with my press card.

      Even when working for a rinky-dink small town Ohio daily, I enjoyed a hearing someone mutter:

      "Better watch out for deGroot! He's with the Record-Courier."

       There was also the ego-feeding knowledge that most folks would return my phone calls promptly -- if they knew I was with the press.

      And finally...

      Nearly always, my healthcare blog includes a cruel and unspoken caveat:

      "When it comes to the nation's healthcare industry, most Americans are as dumb as a box of rocks and  as helpless as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest."

       Mea culpa?
       Mine is the venal sin of knowing when others don't.
       And flaunting it.

       Like this... 

                              Diagnostic Service Group
                              Congestive Heart Failure

                                  Broward     Memorial
                                  Medical       Regional        
        White                  656              1,337
          Avg. Charge            $89,925         $103,100
         Black                   869             588
          Avg. Charge             $76,877         $114,090
          Hispanic             95                313
          Avg. Charge             $105,530      $111,412
          Avg. All               1,641           2,137
          Avg. Charge             $83,645        $109,703