KevinMD.com

5 questions to ask before you choose a credentialing service

Thu, 07 May 2026 18:00:50 +0000

Credentialing mistakes are expensive before they are visible Credentialing problems usually look administrative until the revenue gap appears. A new practice may be open, staffed, leased, insured, and ready for patients, but one missing payer panel can cut off a revenue stream for a quarter or more. The timeline is not small. Payer enrollment commonly

Prior authorization during surgery is not oversight

Thu, 07 May 2026 17:00:39 +0000

She was forty-eight years old and had already been through enough. Her uterus had prolapsed. If you have not heard the term, let me be plain. The uterus had descended through the vaginal opening. It was outside her body. This is not a metaphor and it is not a minor complaint. It is a complete

California’s governor race is missing a health care plan

Thu, 07 May 2026 16:00:49 +0000

As California gears up for its gubernatorial primaries and debates, the familiar issues dominate the conversation: housing affordability, crime, taxes, and economic pressures. Health care surfaces, but rarely as a central priority with concrete, actionable solutions. Candidates offer broad strokes on affordability or protecting programs from federal changes, yet the crushing realities of escalating costs,

How ambient artificial intelligence can transform team-based care

Thu, 07 May 2026 15:00:57 +0000

For years, the conversation around burnout has centered on physicians, and more recently, ambient artificial intelligence (AI) has been positioned as a solution to reduce after-hours charting and reclaim time from the electronic health record (EHR). But as these tools gain traction, a gap is becoming harder to ignore: Many are designed for a single

The emotional impact of infertility is grief unspoken

Thu, 07 May 2026 14:00:32 +0000

Long before in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics, fertility apps, hormone testing, or egg freezing, women understood that fertility carried social meaning far beyond biology. In 19th-century Yorubaland, a woman named Efunsetan Aniwura rose to become one of the most powerful figures in Ibadan history. She was wealthy, influential, politically connected, and held the prestigious title

Why individualized menopause care matters today

Thu, 07 May 2026 11:00:00 +0000

In the past, women in menopause were brushed aside and told that their symptoms were “just stress” or a “natural part of aging.” Implicit in this message was the expectation that women were to push through this transition and endure its symptoms on their own without support. Now, the pendulum has swung and this midlife

Why individualized menopause care matters today originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

Patients don’t need certainty, they need your reasoning out loud [PODCAST]

Wed, 06 May 2026 23:00:59 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! What if the biggest driver of unnecessary ER visits, malpractice claims, and patient anxiety isn’t a missed diagnosis but a missed sentence? Alan P. Feren, a retired surgeon, independent physician, health care consultant, and patient advocate, returns to the show to

How vocal biomarkers are revolutionizing early detection

Wed, 06 May 2026 21:00:26 +0000

Early detection has always been one of medicine’s most powerful tools. The sooner we can identify cognitive, behavioral, or neurological conditions, the greater the potential benefit for patients, their caregivers, and their providers. That truth is even more pressing today. Thanks to rapid advances in artificial intelligence and speech analysis, vocal biomarkers have emerged as

Patient autonomy in psychiatry and the ethics of care

Wed, 06 May 2026 19:00:04 +0000

One of my patients, K, arrived in the United States in florid psychosis. Back in China, she worked as a housekeeper and lived independently. She took her medications reluctantly but consistently, forced upon her by her parents. After her parents passed away, she stopped her medications. She became convinced her life was being controlled by

What hidden constraints shape clinical decisions?

Wed, 06 May 2026 18:00:25 +0000

What if the biggest problem in medicine isn’t bad decisions but rather the decisions we cannot even consider? Clinical decisions unfold through processes shaped by the environment, which determine what clinicians can notice, consider, and act on. What seems like individual reasoning is structured in advance by systemic and environmental forces. Within this context, this

PRP therapy protocols lack expert consensus

Wed, 06 May 2026 17:00:42 +0000

As a board-certified physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM&R) physician, I have guided patients through musculoskeletal care. Recently, my focus has shifted toward regenerative medicine, particularly platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy. What began as curiosity is now a strong commitment to understanding these therapies for patients who have exhausted conventional treatments. This new focus led me to

PRP therapy protocols lack expert consensus originally appeared in KevinMD.com.

Patients pay when Medicare care coordination codes go unused

Wed, 06 May 2026 16:00:41 +0000

In my years as an ICU nurse, I learned to recognize a pattern. The patients I cared for in trauma surgical intensive care often arrived after a cascade of preventable events. A missed medication. A symptom that went unaddressed. A follow-up appointment that never happened. By the time they reached my unit, the question was

Why physician well-being matters at every career stage

Wed, 06 May 2026 15:00:06 +0000

The life of a physician is often viewed as a linear climb, a constant upward trajectory of achievement, responsibility, and endurance. But after decades in the field, I have come to realize that medicine is not a straight line. It is a series of seasons. If we fail to recognize the changing weather of our

How implicit bias in health care impacts patient safety

Wed, 06 May 2026 13:00:35 +0000

Recently, I found myself in a place many physicians know professionally but dread personally: the waiting area outside a procedure room, this time as a mother. My six-year-old underwent what was supposed to be a simple elective procedure under general anesthesia at a day surgery center. He walked in smiling. He was put to sleep

Finding meaning and purpose in medical residency training

Wed, 06 May 2026 11:00:26 +0000

If you have just matched into residency, the profession is about to begin shaping you in ways that are not always visible at first. You have made the right decision and chosen a life of service, one whose rewards are far greater than a bank account will ever reflect. What follows is not part of

Your waiting room does what social media cannot [PODCAST]

Tue, 05 May 2026 23:00:32 +0000

Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! What happens when patients from opposite ends of the political spectrum sit together in your waiting room and start talking like neighbors? Psychiatrist Farid Sabet-Sharghi explores why the medical office remains one of the last spaces where shared humanity overrides division.

Why tickborne co-infections are changing Lyme disease care

Tue, 05 May 2026 22:00:44 +0000

Tickborne diseases are the most common vector-borne infections in the U.S., and for decades Lyme disease has dominated the conversation in endemic regions. But ticks are carrying more than Lyme alone and co-infections are becoming harder to ignore. New research suggests ticks are harboring a wider mix of pathogens than previously recognized, and that co-infections

Artificial intelligence in radiology and global health equity

Tue, 05 May 2026 21:00:04 +0000

In global conversations about the future of radiology, artificial intelligence (AI) is often positioned as the solution to the field’s most pressing challenges. From improving diagnostic accuracy to reducing physician workload, the possibilities seem extensive. Yet, as a medical student training in Nigeria, I have come to realize that the conversation around sustainability in radiology

How mobile surgical units improve rural surgical access

Tue, 05 May 2026 20:00:33 +0000

Travel time to get to an operating room (OR) has increased since 2010. In 2020, 44 percent of rural adults traveled for 60 minutes or longer to get to a place to receive surgery compared to approximately 37 percent in 2010. Longer travel to receive surgery results in delayed treatment. Delayed treatment causes the development

Why systemic endometriosis requires whole-body care

Tue, 05 May 2026 19:00:24 +0000

There have been unanswered questions about endometriosis for as long as it has been identified as a medical condition. We do not know yet why an estimated one in 10 women of reproductive age worldwide develop this often painful, chronic condition while others do not. We do not have a single, successful non-surgical treatment for