Hold your nose. It's time to take a very quick peek at the latest annual results for PainCare Holdings (AMEX:PRZ). Given that the company couldn't bring itself to admit its net loss anywhere in the 19 paragraphs of PR verbiage in the release, you just know the news was bad. And it was: This $0.41 per-share stock lost $0.39 a share. Oh, and the share count ballooned by 26%.

If you're wondering why I bother writing about a mega-diluter that trades for less than four bits, it's because it used to trade for much more and was making a name for itself as some kind of go-go medical growth stock. I even considered buying it at one point. But when I took a look below the hood, I saw a mess. And I saw management with a history of previous failed Florida medical roll-ups.

Unfortunately for investors who didn't heed my warning, that underlying weakness soon turned this speedster into a smoking hulk on the side of the road.

The latest results reveal why. PainCare has managed its capital very poorly. Bullet point two highlights one of those fabled "non-cash" charges that companies love to use to try to pretend everything is just peachy. Nobody bothers explaining the whole truth, which is that "non-cash" goodwill impairment charges prove that the company wasted capital by overpaying for acquisitions in the (in this case, recent) past.

Alas, PainCare is nothing if not a master of the quick costume change. With its previous practice models not panning out as planned, it has now decided to be the nation's "first pain-focused managed services organization that is dedicated to achieving value-based, patient-centric care through a multi-disciplinary network of highly privileged providers and specialists; its proprietary, evidenced-based clinical pathways for the treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal pain."

Sounds like a lot of hocus pocus to me, too.

If you think leopards can change their spots, go ahead and toss your dough this way. Me, I believe an outfit that would rather throw out fancy catch phrases than admit the truth about its finances doesn't care about anything but pumping its story, and it will continue to chew up investors.

Comments? Bring them here.

At the time of publication, Seth Jayson had no positions in any company mentioned here. See his latest blog commentary here. View his stock holdings and Fool profile here. Fool rules are here.