Microdosing

Patients are no longer entering care through the doors traditional health systems control. This episode explores how retail brands, pharma platforms, and digital experiences are becoming the new “front doors,” transferring trust and reshaping where care journeys begin. We look at what this shift means for partnerships, brand equity, and how healthcare organizations must adapt to stay relevant at the first point of engagement.

Rising clashes between hospitals and insurers are exposing outdated fee-for-service infrastructure. As payer–provider clashes surge, healthcare infrastructure is under pressure. We unpack what’s fueling these disputes, how they impact patients, and why flexible platforms may be the key to moving forward.

From weight loss buzz to healthcare infrastructure, GLP-1 drugs started as diabetes treatments but are now reshaping weight loss, care delivery, and consumer markets. In this episode, we explore how they have become more than medicine, driving new business models, digital access points, and patient expectations, featuring insights from leaders across health plans, startups, and strategy firms.

Microdosing is adjusting its format. This episode gives listeners a sneak peek at how Microdosing will be adopting a report-based, written-format-first approach to content. And be moving deeper into the 21st century by having those reports converted to audio podcasts using our new AI-based narrator, Mavis.

For years, the story of American healthcare has read like an obituary for small, independent medical practices. Faced with shrinking reimbursements, staffing shortages, and rising administrative burden, many physicians traded autonomy for stability, selling to health systems or private equity. Yet beneath the consolidation headlines, a quiet rebellion is taking shape. Across the country, small specialty and multi-site practices are not only surviving but posting strong margins. They’re lean, tech-forward, and operationally disciplined, proving that small can be powerful when run like a high-performing business.

There were some open ends in my last episode that we wanted to come back to, provide closure, as well as some more perspectives and opinions.

We wrap our latest series on macro-issues facing healthcare with a look back on the series. It intersects with a timely personal story that highlights how upside down our system is and the reasons behind it. In the process, I credit my wife with summarizing it all: "The US Healthcare System just feels like it's one giant trick being played on us all of the time."

The value-based care (VBC) philosophy is centered around improving patient outcomes while reducing costs by rewarding providers for quality over quantity of services. But in reality, it's just this era's term for cost containment and restricted care. And don't get us started on Medicare Advantage VBC programs and how they approach end-of-life care. ...or maybe we'll poke it at it quickly.

In this episode, we explore the unique economic model of U.S. healthcare, contrasting its privatized structure with the government-provided systems of other developed countries. We examine the high costs, inconsistent outcomes, and cultural dynamics that make U.S. healthcare highly unique compared to nearly 200 other countries. The US ranks #1 on only one list, do you know what that is?

In Maurice Sendak’s book, Where the Wild Things are, a boy