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Why value-based care hasn’t lowered your medical bills [PODCAST]

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 23:00:09 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Everyone agrees health care should reward better outcomes at lower cost. So why hasn’t it happened? The answer isn’t payment models or policy. It comes down to the everyday choices individual clinicians make, and whether anyone can actually see them. Jeanne

Diagnosing psychosis starts with process, not content

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 19:00:03 +0000

A patient tells you that her deceased grandmother still visits her in dreams. Another believes that unseen spiritual forces influence his health. A third insists the government has implanted a device that broadcasts his thoughts. Which patient is psychotic? The answer is that you don’t know. At least not yet. One of the most common

Patient trust in AI is not proof the advice is right

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 17:00:17 +0000

“Can you make this sound less demanding?” A patient types the question into a chatbot while trying to write a message to her doctor. She wants to ask why a test was ordered and whether she should be worried, but she does not want to come across as difficult. She describes the appointment. Then she

Breast implant removal leaves patients paying 3 times

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:00:54 +0000

Former cosmetic surgeon Robert Yoho, MD, after retiring from medical practice in 2019, became an author and health care whistleblower and recently addressed the “explant” trend in which breast implants are surgically removed. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, 306,196 women bought breast augmentation in 2024. In 2021, the FDA added a boxed

Medical gaslighting delayed my diagnosis by 20 years

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:00:43 +0000

This is dedicated to my fellow Zebras. I hear you. I see you. This is not an easy story to share, but I want to do so in the hope of bringing greater visibility to conditions that are often overlooked and poorly understood. This reflection explores my experience as both a patient and doctor navigating

Credit balances in medical practices have a deadline

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 14:00:19 +0000

Most independent practices know their accounts receivable to the dollar. Far fewer can say what their credit balances total, how old the oldest one is, or who is supposed to be doing something about them. A credit balance sits in the practice management system as a negative number on a patient or payer account, it

Why prompt engineering in medicine beats picking a model

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 13:00:33 +0000

It was a quiet Sunday morning, coffee on the desk, and I was doing what most residents do at some point in their training: grinding through multiple-choice questions (MCQs) for my in-training exam. I had been using large language models (LLMs) as study partners for weeks. ChatGPT to walk through a tricky electrolyte case. Gemini

Book publishing scams took $7,500 from me by wire transfer

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:00:18 +0000

About a year ago, KevinMD published an article that I wrote about avoiding online scams when one is highly visible in media as a patient advocate. During that year, I’ve come to recognize that I should have taken more of my own advice on the subject. I have also learned that the technology supporting online

Leaving clinical medicine when doing right became a battle

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 11:00:38 +0000

Make the world a better place strobed through my mind as I trudged anxiously to my organic chemistry final exam after an all-night study session and a few NoDoz capsules. Unprepared and scared, I hoped for the best, as I took yet another exam on material which failed to come easily. Spanish Lit, Writing, and

Why weak branding is costing private practices patients and talent [PODCAST]

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 23:00:11 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Patients now choose doctors the way they shop for everything else, judging your practice online before they walk in. Ashley Gay, a branding expert, argues that a strong brand is not about ego but about earning trust, and that physicians who

Physician advocacy is a duty, not a political choice

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 19:00:03 +0000

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey was more than just a tale about a man’s long journey home. It is ultimately a warning about what happens when society abandons its shared obligations. I found his modern interpretation helpful for framing a recent shift in attitudes toward public health and medicine. In the film, the actions of the

How to stop asking for permission and decide for yourself

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 17:00:27 +0000

When I was deciding whether to leave full-time clinical medicine, I asked my most trusted colleagues what they thought. Most of them did not understand why I would leave something I had worked so hard to build. Others suggested I not make a change so early in my career. My family did not understand the

Fragmented care leaves patients holding the whole picture

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 16:00:33 +0000

I’ve been thinking a lot about what we are losing in modern medicine. We were taught to treat the patient, not just the labs. To listen. To notice patterns. To pay attention when something doesn’t quite fit. To ask, “What am I missing?” Angus Fletcher, a professor of story science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative,

Dialysis access and heart failure need one care plan

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 15:00:41 +0000

For decades, vascular care has focused on solving problems within the circulatory system. When an artery narrows, we restore blood flow. When a patient requires dialysis, we create reliable vascular access. These interventions are critical, but they represent only part of the picture. Today’s vascular patients rarely have disease confined to a single organ system.

Physician onboarding is a chain that nobody owns

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 14:00:54 +0000

When I was being onboarded at a new hospital, I could not have told you what was pending. I did not know which step was next, who was working on it, or who to call to find out. I had signed. After that, I waited. The waiting was the entire experience, and nobody involved seemed

7 questions to ask before pain treatment begins

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 13:00:33 +0000

When pain interferes with work, exercise, sleep, or everyday movement, it is natural to look for the fastest possible solution. Patients often arrive at an appointment asking whether a particular treatment will “fix” a painful knee, back, shoulder, or hip. That question is understandable, but it may not be the best place to begin. Before

7 questions to ask before pain treatment begins originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

Patient trust in AI starts with human accountability

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 12:00:53 +0000

Patients are hearing more about artificial intelligence (AI) in medicine. Some are excited. Some are worried. Many are unsure what it means when a clinician, hospital, insurer, or digital health company says AI is being used in their care. That uncertainty matters. Trust is not created by telling patients that a tool is advanced. Trust

How does a rehabilitation physician actually think?

Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:00:31 +0000

It’s not a simple question, and one that many physicians outside our specialty still find surprisingly difficult to define. Have you ever called a rehab consult and struggled to understand why you need one? Many have. The truth is, physiatrists often think differently. Every specialty develops its own lens through which it views disease. A

Bloated from all that fiber? You added it too fast.

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 23:00:17 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Social media says to spike your fiber intake as fast as you can. That is where the bloating starts. Lisa Talamini is a registered dietitian nutritionist and senior vice president of clinical solutions at Wondr Health. This episode is based on

Prior authorization automation has an arithmetic problem

Sun, 06 Sep 2026 21:00:43 +0000

Wael Khouli wrote here on July 26 that AI will not replace physician advisors, volume will. He is right, and his argument applies elsewhere in the clinic to the people who build prior authorizations. I build this kind of software and have seen automation rescue teams as much as I have seen careless implementations bury