"Empty beds", have been used in the past by Healthcare companies/corporations (more than one "facility") as a ploy for government funding or favors, from local as well federal entities. The whole thing needs an overhaul. From the companies laying off permanent nurses then hiring traveling nurses to defray the cost of ever diminishing reimbursement ("insurance", gov), to healthcare institutions being traded on Wall Street like kids game cards. The more they are able to pit us against each other, the more time they have to keep getting away with it.