"Sandy Lutz, a medical business reporter and investment analyst, and Big Six accounting firm partners Woodrin Grossman and John Bigalke provide their insiders' insights into the financial workings of Wall Street's mighty medical corporations - a class the authors refer to as Med Inc. With an in-depth study of the most notable leader, Columbia/HCA Healthcare, plus illustrative examples of several other medical giants, Lutz and her coauthors demonstrate how these Med Inc. companies work at managing capital, information, risk, and government regulation - the four key success factors to achieving operational efficiency and market dominance. They show how the missions and operations of investor-owned companies compare with their noninvestor-owned counterparts, and examine how current technological and market developments will shape the future of health systems."--BOOK JACKET.