An Indianapolis reporter Tuesday was forced to leave a protest held by security officers at Wishard Memorial Hospital.

The journalist, Kelly Lynch, was covering the event--featuring some 20 security officers and community supporters--for the city's excellent newsweekly, NUVO.

"A police officer walked up and asked for the person who worked for NUVO," writes Lynch. "Once I realized that it was me he was looking for, and someone pointed to me, I knew I'd have some explaining to do. He came over, and double-checked I was a NUVO reporter, and then told me to leave the premises because I wasn't allowed on hospital property. I told him I was just here to cover the protest [...]. He said I couldn't be there without clearance from media relations."

Here's the story that officials at Wishard Memorial Hospital apparently do not want the public to hear.

Indianapolis security officers employed by Securatex protect people and property at Wishard--which brings taxpayer-funded medical care to the vulnerable population of Marion County.

Ironically, these Securatex workers--although they work at a healthcare facility-- say they do not have adequate healthcare coverage through their employer.

"I have to go to free clinics and use programs like the Wishard Advantage." says Tiara Johnson, a Securatex officer at Wishard.

In other words, Securatex, which is already being paid by a taxpayer funded hospital for its services, is outsourcing its responsibility to provide adequate healthcare coverage for its employees to those very same taxpayers--without their knowledge or their consent.

Securatex is making a profit by not paying the full cost of doing business and by secretly dumping their cost of doing business onto the public.

The public needs to know what Securatex is up to.

With nearly 1.4 million outpatient visits per year, Wishard does good work in the community--work that is in the public interest.

It's time for Wishard to come clean about Securatex's immoral business practices--especially the impact of those business practices on the public, which funds Wishard.

Trying to suppress this story is not a solution. If Wishard cannot  solve its Securatex problem, it's time they hire a responsible security firm that allows workers the freedom to form a union, pays fair wages--and, of course, provides adequate healthcare.