Piecemeal: Health Care Consolidation and Independent Primary Care

Welcome to Health Affairs Pathways.

Health Affairs Pathways explores the avenues and alleyways of the health care system through a variety of storytelling – from investigative journalism and health policy explainers to long-form interviews.

Unique series are created by fellows at the Health Affairs Podcast Fellowship Program, designed to support early to mid-stage professionals pursue an audio project, tell a unique health care story, and highlight voices that may not be heard otherwise.

Our first series, Piecemeal, is from Lalita Abhyankar, a physician and storyteller based in San Francisco, CA. Her series examines how consolidation in health care is affecting independent primary care. Guests on this episode include Dr. Wayne Strouse and Shawn Martin, CEO of the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Piecemeal was produced by Dr. Lalita Abhyankar for Health Affairs.

Works Cited:

• Consolidation Of Providers Into Health Systems Increased Substantially, 2016-18 (Health Affairs)
• What We Know About Provider Consolidation (Kaiser Family Foundation)
• Can Small Physician Practices Survive? Sharing Services as a Path to Viability (JAMA)
• 2021 Survey of Final Year Medical Resident (Merritt Hawkins)

Music produced by So Brown and Jack Mason.