The Doctors’ Lounge

The Doctor's Lounge
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Where scalpels meet systems — and physicians say what they really think. Co-hosted by Anish Koka, MD & Anthony DiGiorgio, DO. Candid talks on healthcare policy, reform, physician autonomy & patient care.

  1. 1d ago

    Baseball Arbitration, Benchmarking, and Physician Leverage with Dr. Adam Bruggeman

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Orthopedic spine surgeon and independent-practice owner Adam Bruggeman joins The Doctor’s Lounge to explain the No Surprises Act (NSA), its independent dispute resolution (IDR) process, and the controversy over how out-of-network care should be paid. Hosts Anish Koka, Anthony DiGiorgio, and Sanat Dixit examine what the dispute means for physician negotiating power, patient access, and the future of independent practice. Timestamps 00:00 - Meet Adam Bruggeman and his health policy background 02:21 - What the No Surprises Act is designed to do 04:14 - Patient protections and baseball-style arbitration 08:33 - How often claims reach IDR, and who wins 10:54 - Why the arbitration backstop matters in contract negotiations 14:35 - The QPA and proposals to tie payments to it 19:14 - Why the hosts question QPA as a measure of physician value 23:54 - The reported $22 billion cost and uncertainty in the data 26:15 - Who pays arbitration costs, and what is known about premiums 29:08 - Why New York’s experience may not predict national claim volume 31:53 - Out-of-network strategies, physician assistants, and possible gaming 34:56 - Medicare rates, insurer market power, and physician consolidation 38:47 - Comparing NSA payments with the old out-of-network system 42:38 - Physician negotiating power and the limits of independent practice 47:10 - Cash-pay surgery, insurance, and maintaining patient access 54:39 - How arbitration decisions and offers are being scrutinized 61:08 - Why the dispute over a small share of claims matters 64:34 - Physician fees as a loss leader for hospital revenue Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @DrDiGiorgio Show Handle @DrsLoungePod Subscribe Links Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    Baseball Arbitration, Benchmarking, and Physician Leverage with Dr. Adam Bruggeman

  2. 5d ago

    SNAP, Medicaid Fraud, and the Case for Letting Prices Work

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary: In this episode, Dr. Anish Koka and Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio talk through the trade-offs of government-run programs using SNAP as a model for thinking about healthcare. They also dig into Medicaid fraud, managed care, Medicare Advantage, and the risks of bringing overt politics into patient encounters. The discussion is grounded in real policy examples and a shared concern that well-intended programs can balloon, distort markets, and create worse outcomes if the incentives are wrong. Timestamps 00:00 - Cold San Francisco, small talk, and setting up the policy agenda 00:01:30 - Previewing Dr. Adam Bruggeman and the next episode on IDR and the No Surprises Act 00:03:54 - Why SNAP is the right model to think about when designing healthcare subsidies 00:05:48 - No program is perfect, but SNAP may be better than the alternatives 00:06:13 - How SNAP can be gamed through cash-equivalent arbitrage and junk food purchases 00:07:11 - Why a healthcare HSA-style subsidy would still need rules on eligible spending 00:08:01 - SNAP spending has grown from about 6 billion to about 120 billion per year 00:09:07 - The risk that healthcare subsidies could also incentivize unhealthy consumption and fraud 00:11:22 - Why every government program seems to drift toward vested interests and regulatory capture 00:12:18 - The case for a market-based subsidy instead of direct government service delivery 00:13:16 - What a fully government-run food system would look like if modeled on Medicare 00:14:32 - Government-run hospitals, the VA, and the limits of parallel public systems 00:17:02 - Public schools, vouchers, and why incentive structure matters more than more money 00:18:25 - Why a subsidized private system may work better than a broad public option 00:20:46 - Tiers already exist in American healthcare, whether people admit it or not 00:22:39 - How corporate actors lobby for government intervention once subsidies exist 00:24:05 - Why a public option may preserve the same distortions rather than fix them 00:26:26 - Medicaid fraud news, investigative journalism, and the Nick Shirley reporting 00:28:59 - Medicaid fee-for-service versus managed care and the fraud-control trade-off 00:31:52 - How 1915 waiver services are especially vulnerable to abuse in fee-for-service systems 00:32:46 - The Medicare Advantage debate and disputed overpayment estimates 00:35:37 - Traditional Medicare’s own problems with fraud control and payment distortions 00:37:13 - Why price suppression harms both physicians and patients 00:40:30 - Concussion care as an example of how shortages and waitlists emerge 00:43:22 - The moral argument for prices and patient choice 00:46:26 - Critiquing the MedPage piece on doctors talking to patients about politics 00:48:46 - Why the exam room is the wrong place for political persuasion 00:50:48 - The vulnerability of the patient and why political advocacy should stay out of clinical care 00:53:19 - Why overt political endorsements can damage physician-patient trust 00:57:48 - Why academic monoculture is overstated and many dissenters are simply quiet 00:59:53 - What is coming next: IDR with Dr. Bruggeman and future healthcare and AI discussions 01:01:09 - Hoover Institute Medicare event, 340B, quality metrics, and incremental reform Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @drdigiorgio Show Handle @drsloungepod Subscribe Links: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    SNAP, Medicaid Fraud, and the Case for Letting Prices Work

  3. Oct 16

    No Villains, Just Incentives: A Healthcare Consultant Turned Writer on Why the System Fights Itself

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary This episode examines why US healthcare keeps rewarding consolidation, even when it raises costs and makes the system harder to navigate. Andrew Tsang, writer of Health is Other People, brings a cross-industry view from consulting, policy, providers, and payers to explain how hospitals, insurers, and Medicare rules all shape behavior. We discuss why the system feels adversarial, how incentives drive consolidation, and why policies like the No Surprises Act and MLR can produce unintended consequences. The conversation also turns into a broader argument that the real problem may be cultural and existential, not just technical or legislative. Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing Andrew Tsang and his healthcare writing background 00:53 - From consulting and Medicaid work to healthcare writing 03:10 - Why hospitals are political systems, not just businesses 05:23 - Mass General Brigham, consolidation, and incentive-driven growth 10:20 - What the No Surprises Act is trying to do for patients 12:39 - Independent dispute resolution and the provider payer dynamic 15:49 - Why arbitration may favor providers and still raise costs 18:26 - MLR, insurer incentives, and the limits of cost containment 22:19 - Why US healthcare fights over scarce resources instead of throughput 23:46 - The scale of utilization management and billing conflict 24:23 - Medicare DRGs, coding complexity, and upcoding incentives 26:24 - How hospital market power affects commercial pricing 28:28 - What actually drives merger strategy inside health systems 31:39 - Why insurers and hospitals still claim cost control while behaving differently 37:37 - The Tufts and Partners negotiation as a lesson in market power 40:33 - Essential benefits, narrow plans, and how coverage rules shape leverage 44:42 - Why the US wants both public guarantees and private market incentives 47:11 - Vertical integration in insurance and why it is rewarded 53:39 - Why policy fixes are incremental and often politically compromised 56:21 - Why Andrew left consulting and what felt futile about the work 58:18 - The case for healthcare as a cultural and moral problem 59:12 - Why selfishness, greed, and apathy may be the real barriers to reform Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @drdigiorgio Show Handle @drsloungepod Subscribe Links Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod Mr. Andrew Tsang LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tsang1219 Mr. Andrew Tsang Substack handle is:  https://substack.com/@andrewtsang Mr. Andrew Tsang Substack Health is Other People link:  https://blog.healthisotherpeople.com/?utm_source=global-search Mr. Andrew Tsang Substack Mass General Brigham merger link: https://substack.com/@andrewtsang/note/c-350273328?utmSource=%2Fsearch%2FMass%2520General%2520Brigham%2520merger 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    No Villains, Just Incentives: A Healthcare Consultant Turned Writer on Why the System Fights Itself

  4. Oct 11

    Leaving the Employment Model: Dr. Mollie James on Going Independent

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary  Dr. Mollie James joins Anish Koka, MD and Anthony DiGiorgio to talk about what pushed her out of traditional employment, how she rebuilt her practice after bankruptcy and COVID, and why she believes more physicians need independent options. The conversation focuses on the pressures of hospital employment, the power of pricing and cash pay, and practical paths for doctors who want more autonomy. Timestamps (00:00) Dr. Mollie James' background and the goal of the conversation (01:41) Southern Iowa roots, DO training, surgery, ICU work, and leaving academics (03:19) Administrative overload and trying to rebuild trauma services after a tornado (04:43) Why job-hopping did not solve the real problem (07:11) RVU pressure, too few ORs, and the impossible math of employed surgery (08:29) Why administrators miss the clinical big picture (09:59) The COVID straw that broke the camel's back (11:49) Pushback over medication choices and committee control (13:45) Launching James Clinic during the pandemic (16:17) Treating 4,000 COVID patients in four months (17:30) Telemedicine, a low-rent clinic, and building from scratch (18:23) Cash pricing, two-week coverage, and tiered support (19:46) Doubters, happy hypoxia, and why outpatient COVID care worked (21:32) The treatment approach: steroids, antihistamines, and more (23:24) ICU COVID, sedation, vent intolerance, and prolonged intubations (25:51) Omicron, collapsing COVID volume, and pivoting the business (27:30) Pricing mistakes, layoffs, and how a practice has to evolve (28:10) Why the integrative cancer program was underpriced (29:28) Current niches: hormone care, blood pressure, fatigue, mitochondrial support (30:12) Why the market can solve care shortages better than administration (31:46) Why cash pay and patient-funded care reduce conflict over evidence (35:48) Independent medicine requires results, service, and rapid feedback (36:42) Why low prices can limit your ability to help anyone (37:24) Why physicians should consider independence and self-funded models (40:01) Diversifying privileges and not putting all your eggs in one basket (40:52) How a new grad can start as a 1099 contractor (42:39) Networking, call coverage, and building cooperative physician relationships (43:22) Why scarcity thinking hurts doctors outside the hospital (44:56) The modifier 25 and CMS reimbursement frustrations (46:28) Fear, pricing transparency, and why patients and doctors both lose (47:42) Knowledge replacing fear in healthcare decisions (49:46) Why splitting procedures across days feels absurd to patients (50:48) The real mechanism problem behind billing rules (53:26) Social media manipulation, CPT complexity, and administrative bloat (55:08) Why single payer does not actually mean simple (56:03) Maverick Medical Ventures and the playbook for leaving the system (58:28) Headwinds, hospital consolidation, and patients seeing huge price jumps (60:15) Monopolization, referrals blocked by system rules, and loss of access (61:11) Why hospital privileges can still be a barrier for outpatient procedures (62:10) Culture wars, division, and the need to align on shared physician priorities (64:46) Closing details: James Clinic locations, Maverick Medical, and Dr. James' handle Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @drdigiorgio Show Handle @drsloungepod Subscribe Links Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod Dr. Mollie James X Handle @molsjames Dr. Mollie James Website https://maverickmedicalventures.com/ 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    Leaving the Employment Model: Dr. Mollie James on Going Independent

  5. Sep 27

    From Addiction to Advocacy: Tom Wolf's Journey

    Send us Fan Mail Summary In this episode, Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka engage with Tom Wolf, a recovery advocate, who shares his personal journey through addiction, homelessness, and eventual recovery. The conversation delves into the complexities of homelessness, the impact of substance use, and the evolving definitions and policies surrounding addiction treatment. Tom discusses the harm reduction approach, its origins, and its implications, while emphasizing the need for accountability and the role of physicians in addressing the opioid crisis. The episode highlights the importance of lived experiences in shaping drug policy and the ongoing challenges faced by individuals in recovery. In this conversation, Anthony DiGiorgio and Tom Wolf delve into the complexities of addiction treatment, mental health, and the political landscape surrounding these issues. They discuss the challenges of psychiatric holds, the balance between autonomy and compulsion in treatment, and the failures of current drug policies in major cities. The dialogue emphasizes the need for a recovery-oriented system of care and critiques the harm reduction approach, drawing comparisons to international policies, particularly in Portugal. The conversation highlights the intersection of mental health and addiction, the political ramifications of policy failures, and the urgent need for effective solutions to the ongoing drug crisis. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Recovery Advocacy 00:55 Tom Wolf's Journey Through Addiction 06:33 Finding Recovery and Advocacy 10:08 The Complexity of Homelessness and Addiction 11:22 The Evolving Definition of Homelessness 12:26 The Impact of Substance Use on Housing 15:06 Harm Reduction: A Double-Edged Sword 20:30 The Role of Physicians in Substance Abuse 25:02 The Historical Context of Opioid Prescription 30:02 The Future of Drug Policy and Recovery 34:39 Navigating Psychiatric Holds and Treatment Options 38:30 The Dilemma of Autonomy vs. Compulsion in Treatment 40:40 Evaluating Policy Failures in Major Cities 44:51 Building a Recovery-Oriented System of Care 47:39 Comparing Drug Policies: Lessons from Portugal 49:40 The Intersection of Mental Health and Addiction 51:51 The Political Landscape of Addiction Recovery 56:55 The Challenges of Acknowledging Policy Failures Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @drdigiorgio Show Handle @drsloungepod Guest Handle/Links @Twolfrecovery https://www.tomwolfrecovery.com/ Subscribe Links Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    From Addiction to Advocacy: Tom Wolf's Journey

  6. Sep 22

    You Can't HSA That Away: Rachel Rosenthal on Medicare, Trade-offs, and Zero-COVID Singapore

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary  Rachel Rosenthal, an editorial board member at Bloomberg who writes on healthcare and education, joins Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka for a wide-ranging conversation about healthcare reporting, COVID-era lessons, and why Medicare’s fiscal path matters beyond policy circles. The discussion gets into the incentives behind drug pricing, the limits of simplistic villains in healthcare, and why trade-offs, not slogans, are what actually shape reform. In this episode, Rachel shares how an accidental path from Asia and immigration policy led her into healthcare editorial writing, why the beat is both endlessly frustrating and endlessly rich, and how COVID in Singapore changed the way she thinks about public health authority, institutional trust, and policy mistakes. The conversation also turns to her Bloomberg piece on Medicare, where the hosts unpack how spending, deficits, borrowing, and bond markets connect. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro and guest introduction 00:51 - Rachel’s accidental path from Asia to healthcare writing 03:25 - Why healthcare is a “gift that keeps on giving” 04:57 - From Medicare to digital twins, the range of the beat 06:48 - Why healthcare has no single villain 08:17 - The real work behind strong healthcare editorials 10:04 - How COVID in Singapore changed her perspective 11:40 - Lockdowns, surveillance, and zero-COVID enforcement 14:30 - What the pandemic revealed about institutions and trust 18:18 - Why Singapore’s approach was understandable, then failed to adapt 20:18 - Writing columns that forced policy change 23:46 - How school closures exposed institutional dysfunction 24:38 - Leadership failures and the need for honesty 26:47 - Why source diversity matters in journalism 29:35 - The pressure to publish fast and simplify complex stories 31:04 - Are readers, editors, and advertisers all part of the problem? 35:18 - Why Medicare is the next major fiscal crisis 36:38 - The “one dollar in, three dollars out” problem 39:34 - Why uncapped spending removes urgency 40:04 - Site-neutral payments and other low-hanging fruit 41:31 - Why wealthy seniors still receive subsidies 43:33 - How entitlement reform gets politically messy 45:41 - Why Medicare matters to bond traders 47:01 - Interest rates, mortgages, and everyday life 48:30 - Demographics, aging, and the scale of the problem 49:22 - Why Medicare for All doesn’t solve the deficit 52:06 - Medicare’s complexity and the limits of copying it 55:52 - A simple framework: government choices versus private choice 57:57 - Who decides preventive care coverage and why that is political 59:45 - Health policy as a value judgment, not pure math 62:12 - Rachel’s ideal direction: less employer-sponsored distortion, more individual choice 64:54 - Defining the real problem before designing reform 66:27 - Trade-offs, privilege, and the appeal of security 68:01 - Why innovation in delivery and payment still matters 69:14 - Why good-faith debate disappears when the frame becomes good versus evil 71:07 - Why both left and right need to give ground 72:35 - Universal catastrophic coverage as a possible compromise 73:35 - Security, coverage gaps, and the need for on-ramps between programs 74:32 - Wrap-up and final thoughts Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @DrDiGiorgio Show handle @DRsLoungePod Subscribe Links Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    You Can't HSA That Away: Rachel Rosenthal on Medicare, Trade-offs, and Zero-COVID Singapore

  7. Sep 21

    Real Doc Speaks: Bureaucracy, Bad Incentives, and the Fight to Keep Doctors in Charge

    Send us Fan Mail In this special add-on episode, Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio welcome Dr. James O'Leary — a Mayo-trained OB-GYN with forty years of experience, former department chairman, ACO board member, and host of the Real Doc Speaks podcast — for a wide-ranging conversation on the erosion of physician-led care. The trio dissects a tragic Nashville case in which four outpatient knee-replacement patients were injected with potassium phosphate instead of bupivacaine after a multi-step, multi-person medication-verification process failed at every checkpoint, using it as a jumping-off point to discuss "kludgeocracy," alert fatigue, surgical-timeout mission creep, and how doctors who raise safety concerns get labeled disruptive. From there the conversation moves through OB-GYN malpractice and nuclear jury verdicts, Florida's no-fault birth-injury compensation fund as a possible national model, the maze of state-by-state Medicaid reimbursement and its perverse incentives, and nonprofit hospitals' use of stadium sponsorships as a possible anti-kickback violation, before closing with a rapid-fire "hot seat" round covering ACOs, private equity, scope of practice, physician unionization, and single-payer healthcare. Chapters 00:00 Cold open — why isn't Medicaid money reaching physicians? 00:34 Welcoming Dr. James O'Leary (Real Doc Speaks) 02:34 Why physicians need a voice on social media 03:14 The Nashville potassium phosphate medication error 09:52 Would a physician-owned hospital have prevented this? 10:17 "Kludgeocracy" and getting labeled disruptive 14:30 The surgical timeout's mission creep 19:35 EMR alert fatigue and lost safety signals 22:50 Replacing pharmacy techs with better safeguards 24:34 Anish's shift from hospital to outpatient practice 30:19 Malpractice, nuclear verdicts, and OB-GYN 33:50 Florida's no-fault birth-injury compensation model 39:16 Medicaid reimbursement and state-by-state variation 50:33 Nonprofit hospitals, sports sponsorships, and the anti-kickback statute 55:46 Five hot-seat questions for Dr. O'Leary 1:01:51 Direct referrals vs. large health systems 1:03:23 Closing thoughts and where to find Dr. O'Leary Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @drdigiorgio Guest Handle Dr. James O'Leary — @realdocspeaks Show Handle @drsloungepod Subscribe Links:  Spotify: http://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    Real Doc Speaks: Bureaucracy, Bad Incentives, and the Fight to Keep Doctors in Charge

  8. Sep 14

    The Cost Cure: Ashish Jha's Case for Price Caps, Competition, and Biosurveillance

    Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka speak with Dr. Ashish Jha, co-founder and CEO of BioRadar, senior fellow at Harvard Belfer Center, and former White House COVID-19 response coordinator, about the future of American healthcare policy. The conversation moves from hospital pricing and insurance design to Medicaid, HSA-based models, and the political realities that shape what reform is actually possible. They also pivot into a second major topic: biothreat detection. Jha explains why he thinks biosurveillance, not just response, will be essential in an era of AI-assisted biological engineering. Timestamps 00:00 - Intro, guest credentials, and the Boston Globe cost cure series 00:33 - Why Jha wrote a 10-part reform series instead of one op-ed 01:54 - Evidence-based ideas that should annoy someone on every side 03:42 - Why state-level health policy matters, not just Washington 04:20 - American healthcare’s core pricing problem 05:58 - Competition, monopolies, and when price regulation enters the picture 06:57 - Scope of practice, insurance design, and administrative burden 08:40 - Indiana’s Medicaid-based hospital pricing experiment 09:47 - Why provider price caps are controversial 11:42 - Site-neutral payments and the hospital lobbying problem 13:30 - Why temporary regulation can bridge a monopoly-heavy market 16:22 - Why payer competition matters before price caps can reach consumers 17:44 - Can temporary government policies ever really be reversed? 20:11 - Tackling the demand-side subsidies that fuel consolidation 22:39 - FTC enforcement and the slow pace of market change 23:53 - Why policy experts should give leaders workable alternatives 26:27 - Hospitals are not villains, but incentives matter 27:32 - Site-neutral payment and physician-owned hospitals as starting points 28:57 - Cash payments, deductibles, and value-based insurance design 29:49 - The outline of a possible deal among hospitals, insurers, and policymakers 33:34 - Medicaid work requirements and what the evidence says 35:36 - Why eligibility should be easier for people who qualify 38:02 - Medicaid as a value statement about universal coverage 40:19 - Program integrity, fraud, and long-term sustainability 43:43 - Why Jha changed his mind on pay-for-performance and EHRs 45:14 - His critique of quality metrics and the value of empirical humility 46:14 - Why HSAs are attractive but imperfect 47:23 - Living under an HSA and why behavior changes 49:47 - Why Medicare for All is politically and operationally hard 50:41 - Uwe Reinhardt, Denmark, and why systems depend on politics and people 53:18 - Why sick people often make irrational cost decisions 57:02 - Smarter copays, true emergencies, and the limits of consumerism 58:24 - Why disagreement should stay respectful and not personal 60:20 - Pivot to bioterrorism and biological weapons 61:07 - Why BioRadar was created and what problem it is solving 63:18 - AI, state actors, and the shrinking barrier to bioweapons 64:18 - Why the risk of an engineered pathogen in the next five years worries Jha 65:31 - Jha’s view that COVID was more likely a lab leak than a natural origin 66:30 - Guardrails around gain-of-function research and Fauci criticism 68:46 - The difference between a dangerous outbreak and a stealth pandemic 71:38 - How biosurveillance can avoid overreaction while still catching real threats 73:13 - Why better surveillance could have changed the COVID response 75:16 - Wrap-up, bipartisanship, and the value of trade-offs Co-Host Handles @anish_koka and @DrDiGiorgio Show Handle @DRsLoungePod Subscribe Links Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod 🔗 Connect with the Hosts: • Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio on X • Dr. Anish Koka on X • Dr. Dan Choi on X • Dr. Sanat Dixit on X

    The Cost Cure: Ashish Jha's Case for Price Caps, Competition, and Biosurveillance
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4.7
out of 5
57 Ratings

About

Where scalpels meet systems — and physicians say what they really think. Co-hosted by Anish Koka, MD & Anthony DiGiorgio, DO. Candid talks on healthcare policy, reform, physician autonomy & patient care.

Information

  • Creator
    The Doctor's Lounge
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    85
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 The Doctors’ Lounge
  • Show Website
    The Doctors’ Lounge

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