He must have worked well with someone at UMC and it wasn't the staff. Look to the CEO and others that gave him that contract. What's more outrageous is the $5mill given to fellow Hindu Temple member Chanderraj (cardiologist) by UMC. Thanks Dickdoc for that info.
It is a privilege for physicians to work at a hospital, meaning they can round on the patients at that hospital. This is a different deal altogether and like Dickdoc, I believe that there's way more to this story than just "poor UMC taken advantage of by Desai". Especially, when UMC then tries to justify a $5 mill contract for another doctor. This is CYA at play on UMC's part.

Is the deal with Nevada Heart and Vascular true?
$5million? What are these doctors doing for UMC that warrants that level of pay?
UMC needs someone with some financial sense, not political sense. They also need someone monitoring their decision making process. Not people who make statements such as- "if no one asks questions we just go along".!!! What are those people getting paid? You've got to be kidding!!! It's as bad as Desai's CNRA's "we were told to and we just went along".
Are all of the hospitals political like this? I'm digusted and outraged at the continued excuses of "held hostage", "in a box", your decision making was "in a box". Come on, let's get people who are truly making decisions in the best interest of the people of Las Vegas.

Do you suppose the contract between UMC and Desai stipulated that the "uninsured" would not be charged for their visits at the gastro center? I also find it interesting that UMC had no idea how many were insured or not. What kind of business mind pays a facility to take referrals from them? And, how many of those patients that were sent to the Gastro center were required by their insurance carriers to go there anyways? Seems to me they were the "preferred center on many insurance companies lists"? So, why do you have to "pay" to send them there? Something is missing in UMC's explanation. Looks like Desai as well as UMC will be answering some hard questions.

He is a cost cutting cheapskate and was getting big bucks (it appears) for the contracted use of his facility. I don't think it's only UMC who has an "overflow" contract with him either. Why not just refer patients there, if the overflow sent was approx 1500 pt's? It's outrageous that a CEO, interim or otherwise would endorse that amount of money. And, at 1500 patients I don't see how they could'nt have split that up with a few other groups. Something smells fishy here. I think it needs to be looked into further. A facility as large as UMC held hostage? Come on!!