Also available at Fictionwise
THE BILL came about while I was on a weekend boat trip with a friend. We tried to think of how various businesses would work if they were managed the way hospitals were. That led to a discussion about insurance company practices, the rise of medical bureaucracy, and the frustration that we all face when we see the Byzantine invoices that they prepare. Stan Schmidt thought that this was a "nifty bit of satire."
This story, in Xerox form, was widely circulated at the 1997 AMA conference in Chicago.