He counts four wounds in American medicine. Patients rarely bring up the first one, which is what health care costs. Narinder Singh Parhar is a physician with more than three decades in internal medicine, hospital medicine, and intensive care. This episode is based on his article "Health care affordability is now a moral crisis [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/health-care-affordability-is-now-a-moral-crisis.html]," published on KevinMD. A retired Korean War veteran had Medicare, a supplemental plan, and a lifetime of work behind him. He still could not fill a $500 prescription near the end of the year. Narinder argues that spending has piled up in hospitals, imaging, procedures, and specialty care while primary care and the basic work of keeping people well go underfunded. He is blunt about the profession's part in it, saying physicians were taught to be blind to what care costs. You will hear him walk through the ordinary decisions where that shows up: the generic, the office biopsy, the shoulder MRI. He closes with a take-home for physicians that starts somewhere unexpected, with their own health.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Doctors were told to be blind to the cost of care

In South Louisiana, hurricane season is treated like a fifth season of the year. Angela C. Johnson explains what that means for physicians and patients. She is an internal medicine physician and member of the American College of Physicians Board of Regents. This episode is based on her article "Physicians and natural disasters: the fifth season [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/physicians-and-natural-disasters-the-fifth-season.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear what care looks like inside a medical shelter, where the exam rooms, the records, and the staffing are gone and the work comes back to a doctor and a patient. She describes who ends up in a shelter, why getting people home is its own problem, and why a community without power, water, or open doctor's offices is not ready to take them back. She also tells you what to bring and what to ask your providers before an evacuation, and why she watches storm intensity as closely as the count. Stay to the end for her case that the differences a storm exposes are the ones to work on between storms.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Hurricane season is a fifth season, and medicine has to plan for it

Most people who get antibiotics for a sinus infection never needed them, and the real problem goes untreated. Franklyn R. Gergits is a board-certified otolaryngologist who sees the patients that three, four, and five rounds of antibiotics did not fix. This episode is based on his article "We prescribe antibiotics for sinusitis without a diagnosis [https://kevinmd.com/2026/07/we-prescribe-antibiotics-for-sinusitis-without-a-diagnosis.html]," published on KevinMD. He separates a sinus infection from a cold, allergies, and COVID, and names the ten-day rule he uses before anyone gets a prescription. You will hear why a patient's certainty that the antibiotic worked last time is often wrong, what a normal CAT scan should tell you to look for next, and which conditions turn out to be driving the symptoms when the culture keeps coming back clean. He is direct about the pressure clinicians face to write something, and about what patients can try at home before they call. Press play to hear when an antibiotic is the right call, and what to check first when it is not.

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform [https://kevinmd.com/kevinmd-influencer-opportunities]. With over three million monthly readers and half a million social media followers, I give you direct access to the doctors and patients who matter most. Whether you need a sponsored article, email campaign, video interview, or a spot right here on the podcast, I offer the trusted space your brand deserves to be heard. Let's work together to tell your story.

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Antibiotics for sinusitis without a real diagnosis

What if medical AI judges you by how you write instead of what's actually wrong? A health care executive says it already does. Craig Hauben has spent 30 years in health care and the last several years researching AI, and he walks through studies showing that large language models trained on decades of human writing pick up on typos, misspellings, and emotional tone, then quietly route people away from the care they need. Close to 10 percent of the time patients who should have been seen were told not to come in, and women were hit hardest. This episode is based on his article "AI bias in health care reads the writer, not the symptom [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/ai-bias-in-health-care-reads-the-writer-not-the-symptom.html]," published on KevinMD. You will learn why the bias survives even after the obvious warning signs are scrubbed, why ChatGPT-style tools can carry the same blind spots into the exam room, and why trusting the AI too quickly is the real trap. Press play to hear the three questions every clinician should ask before trusting AI with a patient.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Your AI judges patients by how they write, not their symptoms

Leaving medicine can feel like erasing 20 years of work. What if it isn't a loss at all, but a language problem you can solve? Physician executive Shveta Gupta, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist, joins to unpack why so many doctors quietly fuse their identity with the white coat, and why a change in role can feel like being sent back to zero. This episode is based on her article "Leaving medicine is a translation problem, not a loss [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/leaving-medicine-is-a-translation-problem-not-a-loss.html]," published on KevinMD. You'll hear the six words in a job interview that made her feel her whole career had been erased, why she calls this the "false zero," and how the multidisciplinary rounds and hard family conversations you already lead translate directly into the language of leadership. Along the way she makes the case that you don't need an MBA to do this, and that the healthcare world needs physician leaders whether it knows it or not. You'll come away with a new way to name your worth, and concrete first steps to act on it.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Leaving medicine isn't a loss, it's a translation problem

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 Cohen, a health care analytics founder and CEO, argues that the value in value-based care lives in the quality of each clinical decision, not the contract structure around it. This episode is based on her article "The real reason value-based care has not delivered [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/the-real-reason-value-based-care-has-not-delivered.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why roughly a quarter of U.S. health care spending traces back to unwarranted variation, how ordering an unnecessary scan exposes patients to harm and pushes organizations out of financial alignment, and why the data infrastructure to fix this finally exists. Cohen also explains where AI can help, where it can't, and why it won't lower costs on its own. If you want to understand what actually stands between the health care system and the outcomes it keeps promising, this conversation names it directly.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Why value-based care hasn't lowered your medical bills

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 ignore this are quietly losing patients and talent to competitors who look more polished. This episode is based on her article "Branding a medical practice is not vanity, it is trust [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/branding-a-medical-practice-is-not-vanity-it-is-trust.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why a logo is not a brand, why owning your website and ranking locally beats showing up for generic medical searches, and where an AI logo generator falls short. You will learn how the whole patient experience shapes your brand, from the first online impression to the phone call to the waiting room, and why private equity already treats this as an edge. Press play to hear why your brand may matter more than your credentials, and where to focus your first dollars.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Why weak branding is costing private practices patients and talent

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 her article "How to eat more fiber without the bloating [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/how-to-eat-more-fiber-without-the-bloating.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why fibermaxxing with pills, powders, and fortified bars tends to bring gas, bloating, and sometimes diarrhea while delivering few of the nutrients whole food carries. Lisa explains fiberlayering instead, adding one small whole food at a time to meals you already eat, and why water decides whether the fiber you add helps or hurts. You will also hear the roughly 25 grams a day she works from, why the Mediterranean pattern is layering in practice, and how to raise the subject in the few minutes a primary care visit leaves for nutrition. She closes on the red flags to watch for in the next fiber video, and the case for the middle ground over the maximum.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

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

A man told his doctor he was struggling with addiction. The doctor told him this was not something he could help with. Devika Bhushan is a public health physician and a former acting surgeon general of California. This episode is based on her article "How addiction stigma in health care costs lives [https://kevinmd.com/2026/07/how-addiction-stigma-in-health-care-costs-lives.html]," co-written with medical student Taylor Moss and published on KevinMD. You will hear what happened when about 500 clinicians read the same patient described two ways, as a substance abuser in one version and as a person with a substance use disorder in the other. Devika explains why fewer than 1 in 5 people with addiction ever get appropriate treatment, why they receive 30 percent less guideline-based care for conditions like heart disease and diabetes, and why life expectancy can run up to almost 24 years shorter. You will also hear which words open doors in addiction care and which close them, plus six things patients and families can do when a clinician will not listen.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Addiction stigma costs lives, and one word can change that

In a lot of towns there is only one health insurer left, and that is starting to show up in patient care. Rita Agarwal is a pediatric anesthesiologist who started asking why colleagues in a specialty she loves are heading for the door. This episode is based on her article "Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem [https://kevinmd.com/2026/06/insurance-consolidation-is-a-patient-safety-problem.html]," published on KevinMD. She explains why anesthesiology went from a top residency choice to the specialty with the highest intent to leave, and what happens to a team when the people in the room have never worked together. You will hear how a single-payer market leaves a hospital with no room to negotiate, why federal Medicaid cuts hit rural and pediatric hospitals hardest, and what it looks like when patients drive hours for care that used to be down the road. She is candid that most physicians, including her, sat out this fight for years. Press play to hear why she thinks this is unsustainable, and what she is asking physicians to do about it.

This episode is brought to you by ModMed [https://www.modmed.com/].

Welcome to your new AI-Powered Practice from ModMed. We're transforming specialty care by embedding AI Assistants across your entire workflow. Our all-in-one platform of EHR, patient engagement, practice management, and RCM helps reduce repetitive work while keeping you firmly in control.

Trained on de-identified data from nearly a billion patient encounters, this isn't just smarter software. It's a new way of working for specialty medicine, more efficient and more connected to the patient experience.

Start building your AI-Powered Practice at modmed.com [https://www.modmed.com/].

VISIT SPONSOR → https://www.modmed.com/

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

Health insurance mergers are why your doctor is leaving

Kevin Pho (@kevinmd) · Zencastr

Kevin Pho (@kevinmd)

Social media's leading physician voice, Kevin Pho, MD, shares the stories of the
many who intersect with our health care system but are rarely heard from. 15
minutes a day. 7 days a week. Welcome to The Podcast by KevinMD.