Just under two weeks ago, two Seattle Times's reporters Mike Baker and Justin Mayo posted an investigative piece, "High Volume, Big Dollars, Rising Tension," that exposed Cherry Hill’s Swedish Neuroscience Institute as a massive money-making machine. In 2015, the institute generated $500 million dollars, which was nearly 40 percent more than it made in previous years. Also, the program "had the highest Medicare reimbursements per inpatient visit of any U.S. hospital with at least 150 beds." What was going on?

The Seattle Times claimed that the money was made by "the aggressive pursuit of more patients, more surgeries." And the more complicated the surgery, the better, because complicated surgeries are bloody expensive.

But it gets worse.

The program drew patients from far away places with the promise that they would be treated by star surgeons, though once in the operating room, and once the patient was knocked out, these star doctors were much like the famous painters of the medieval days (they did very little). According to ST, these star surgeons "leave less-experienced doctors receiving specialized training to handle parts of a surgery. That allows the [star] surgeons to be in another operating room—a practice known as “concurrent surgery”—to maintain high volumes. It is not prohibited but can test the limits of Medicare rules."

Today, Puget Sound Business Journal reports that the CEO of Swedish Health Services, Tony Armada, has resigned for personal reasons. A Swedish spokesperson informed PSBJ in an email that “after deep personal reflection, Tony Armada has decided that stepping down is in the best interest of the organization at this time.” What spurred this? Is he taking one for the team? Did he do something wrong?

At the moment, this is where things stand: a questionable resignation on one side; and a damning story on the other.