Medicare will pay your practice to keep chronically ill patients out of the hospital, so why do most practices leave that money unused? Rachel Yates, a registered nurse and health care executive, joins to explain two reimbursement programs Medicare introduced in 2024, Community Health Integration and Principal Illness Navigation, and why two years later most practices still are not using them. This episode is based on her article "Patients pay when Medicare care coordination codes go unused [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/patients-pay-when-medicare-care-coordination-codes-go-unused.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear who actually qualifies, the patients you already see every day who keep cycling back through the ED, and how a single missed medication instruction can turn into a preventable readmission. Rachel makes the case that this is clinical care, not a billing add-on, and that the work can be delivered by contracted nurses under your supervision without piling more onto your existing staff. She walks through what a real between-visit coordination relationship looks like and why a 15-minute appointment was never going to fix everything. She lays out who qualifies, why the codes go unused, and the decision every practice now has to make.

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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Medicare will pay you to keep patients well. Most practices miss it.

When a patient's heart stops, the person leading the code is running on memory alone, and memory fails under that kind of pressure. Michael Peck is an anesthesiologist and retired faculty member at George Washington University who spent more than 30 years watching skilled clinicians get cognitively overwhelmed during a cardiac arrest. In this episode he explains why the problem is not a lack of training but the hard limits of human attention, memory, and decision making during a crisis. This conversation is based on his article "Cognitive overload in cardiac arrest is a human problem [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/cognitive-overload-in-cardiac-arrest-is-a-human-problem.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear what it actually feels like to run a code with no reference to lean on, why aviation and nuclear power lean on checklists while medicine still does not, and why hospital reviews built on memory may miss what went right as well as what went wrong. Press play to hear why he believes patient safety starts with admitting our limits.

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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Cardiac arrest is a human problem, not a training problem

Medicare for All keeps dying in Congress. So what would actually get the major players to agree on universal coverage? Health care journalist Ken Terry returns to lay out a different model, one that keeps insurance companies in the system while putting primary care doctors back in charge of basic care. This episode is based on his article "A Medicare for All alternative that keeps insurers in [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/a-medicare-for-all-alternative-that-keeps-insurers-in.html]," published on KevinMD. You will learn why he believes Medicare for All is a political non-starter and how a two-part financing system could split basic care from major medical coverage. He explains why rewriting corporate practice of medicine laws to free primary care doctors from hospital and corporate employers sits at the center of his plan. You will also hear how independent primary care groups competing on cost and quality could raise physician pay through waste reduction, on a five-year path from here to there. Press play to hear how universal coverage might be reached without cutting the industry out.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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How to fix health care without Medicare for All

For 23 years, an emergency physician stayed calm in the chaos and held the line. Then one night he sat in the hospital parking lot, unable to start his car and drive home. In this episode, Kenneth Scott Burnham shares how depression crept up on him gradually, how his clinical training gave him the tools to deny it for years, and what he learned once he was the patient instead of the doctor. He explains why the health care system is good at stabilizing people in crisis but nearly indifferent to what comes next, where the long wait for care and the gap between knowing what to do and being able to do it is where recovery is won or lost. This episode is based on his article "The real work starts after a mental health crisis [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/the-real-work-starts-after-a-mental-health-crisis.html]," published on KevinMD. You will hear why asking for help is a clinical act rather than a personal failing, and why the crisis is the turning point, not the end of the story.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Why doctors hide their own depression until it nearly breaks them

For 15 years, a primary care physician saw more than 22 patients a day and slowly lost herself to exhaustion. It followed her home every night and onto every vacation. In this episode, Jerina Gani explains how she broke that cycle by doing the opposite of what administrators push: she saw fewer patients, gave each one more time, and found her life again. The counterintuitive twist is that slowing down did not cost her money. By billing more accurately and resolving problems in a single visit, she ended up earning more than she did full time. You will hear why "see more patients" is the wrong answer for doctors and patients alike, how to make the case for a lighter schedule even inside a rigid corporate system, and why she believes primary care will keep losing physicians until the grind changes. This episode is based on her article "Physician burnout is quietly costing doctors themselves [https://kevinmd.com/2026/05/physician-burnout-is-quietly-costing-doctors-themselves.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear how slowing down gave a doctor both a life and a livelihood.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Why the cure for physician burnout is seeing fewer patients

Clinicians are treated as invincible, so when their own mental health suffers, many stay silent. Namit Choksi, a physician entrepreneur and health care executive, joins to explain how credentialing forms and a culture that treats wellbeing as a perk push doctors to hide depression, anxiety, and substance use until they reach a breaking point. You will hear why disclosing a behavioral health condition can threaten a clinician's malpractice and life insurance and trigger a fit-for-duty review, why this fear creates a vicious circle that hospitals only notice once it is too late, and why losing a single clinician can cost more than a million dollars. Choksi also explains why legacy assistance programs fall short, with visit caps, long waits, and rotating counselors, and what confidential, barrier-free support looks like instead. This episode is based on his article "How credentialing and culture impact physician mental health [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/how-credentialing-and-culture-impact-physician-mental-health.html]," published on KevinMD. You will come away understanding what institutions must change to keep their clinicians from suffering in silence.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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How credentialing fears harm physician mental health

Clinicians are pushed to do more with less, until many quietly conclude they are not enough. J. C. Sue, a family medicine physician and adjunct faculty member, returns to unpack where that belief comes from and why it does so much damage across medical school, residency, and practice. You will hear how the business side of medicine and a competitive training culture teach doctors that they must be perfect, why serving beyond your real limits leaves patients, employers, and clinicians all worse off, and what a healthier reframe sounds like: you are human, not infinite, and that is enough. Hsu also walks through how to recover after an inevitable mistake, from acknowledging the feelings to separating human error from a faulty system to giving yourself grace. This episode is based on his article "Medical mistakes happen and you are still enough [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/medical-mistakes-happen-and-you-are-still-enough.html]," published on KevinMD. You will come away with a kinder, more honest way to talk to yourself when medicine asks for more than any one person can give.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Why medicine makes doctors feel they are never enough

Orthopedic surgeon Kevin J. Campbell discusses the article "Understanding Generation 2 patient engagement platforms [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/understanding-generation-2-patient-engagement-platforms.html]." Kevin discusses the article through a practical distinction between first-generation patient engagement tools that increase access but also increase staff workload, and second-generation platforms designed to answer routine patient questions without pulling every message into an inbox. He explains why portals, apps, messaging systems, and automated content often fail when they turn staff into message processors, and why the next generation of platforms must be built around clinical protocols, physician preferences, clear escalation boundaries, and staff-relieving workflows. This episode explores patient engagement, patient portals, health care technology, surgical communication, staff burden, practice efficiency, and the difference between digital access and true operational leverage. It is a useful conversation about how technology should support patient care without simply making it easier for work to find already overwhelmed teams.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Why patient engagement platforms must reduce staff burden

Most women lose feeling in their chest after a mastectomy, and almost no one warns them ahead of time. Emily Hansen, a patient advocate who has spent nearly two decades in health care communication working with surgeons and breast cancer survivors, joins to explain a consequence of survivorship that stays largely hidden. You will learn why loss of sensation is nearly universal after mastectomy, why nerves are among the slowest tissues in the body to recover, and why patients so often feel guilty raising it with the surgeons who saved their lives. Hansen describes the real safety risks that follow, from burns to injuries patients never feel, along with the impact on intimacy that rarely gets discussed. This episode is based on her article "Living with numbness after mastectomy: the unseen impact on survivorship [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/living-with-numbness-after-mastectomy-the-unseen-impact-on-survivorship.html]," published on KevinMD. You will come away with the specific questions every patient should ask before surgery and how the whole care team can raise this earlier.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Numbness after a mastectomy no one warns you about

Most doctor visits do not fail in the room. They fail after you walk out, holding a plan and no clear idea of when something has gone wrong enough to call back. In this episode, retired surgeon and patient advocate Alan P. Feren explains why "call me if it gets worse" is not real guidance, and what clear instructions actually look like. He argues that sharing responsibility with patients only works when both sides share clarity, because a threshold no one defined is one no patient can act on. You will hear why patients delay care when they are unsure what counts as worse, why feasibility, whether a plan is actually doable for that person, matters as much as the plan itself, and the three things every clinician should name before a patient leaves. This episode is based on his article "Shared responsibility in patient care needs boundaries [https://kevinmd.com/2026/04/shared-responsibility-in-patient-care-needs-boundaries.html]," published on KevinMD. Press play to hear how to turn a vague plan into one a patient can follow.

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.

PARTNER WITH KEVINMD → https://kevinmd.com/influencer

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Why your treatment plan falls apart after you leave the doctor

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.