PODCAST · business
The Doctor's Lounge
by The Doctor's Lounge
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.
Episodes
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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...
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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…
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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,...
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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...
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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…
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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...
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Congressman Tom Oliverson on 340b, the No Surprises Act, gold carding, and more
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary In this episode of the Doctor's Lounge, Anthony DiGiorgio speaks with Hon. Tom Oliverson, MD, Texas State Representative for House District 130 and chair of the House Republican Caucus. Dr. Oliverson shares how he moved from medicine into public service, why...
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Vinay Prasad: COVID, the FDA, and Why Journalism Keeps Getting Medicine Wrong
Send us Fan Mail The prior uploaded file had 26 seconds that was corrupted. Restored on this version! Episode Summary: Dr. Vinay Prasad joins the Doctors Lounge in a recorded in person conversation that moves from his time at the FDA to bigger questions about evidence, incentives, and trust in...
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The Ship Has Sailed: Mike Munger on Medicare, Markets, and Debt
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Duke political economist and podcast host Mike Munger (The Answer is Transaction Costs) joins Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka to argue that what Americans call "health insurance" isn't insurance at all — it's a social program where, as Bastiat put it, everyone...
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900 Regulatory Hurdles: Why AI Isn't Replacing Doctors Yet
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary With scheduled guest Dr. Geoff Manley pulled away by a medical emergency, hosts Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio turn the episode into a news roundtable. They open on a JAMA op-ed by Neil Khosla and Ezekiel Emanuel arguing AI will replace physicians outright, and...
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Inside a $207 Million Verdict: What Every Physician Should Know About Malpractice Trials
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary In a special Tuesday episode, Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio sit down with Heather Tereshko, a Principal at Post & Schell in Philadelphia and a 25-year veteran of medical malpractice defense, to break down the largest medical malpractice verdict in Pennsylvania...
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Right-to-Try 2.0: Inside the Montana Model with Niklas Anzinger
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio sit down with Niklas Anzinger, a venture capitalist and founder of Infinita VC, to unpack Montana SB535 — a new law that lets doctors administer treatments to patients that have only cleared FDA phase one trials, through licensed...
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Dan Donoho on Surgical Data Science, Regulation, and the Humanoid OR
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anthony DiGiorgio and Anish Koka sit down with Dr. Dan Donoho, an NIH-funded neurosurgeon-scientist at Children's National Hospital and George Washington University, and founder of the Surgical Data Science Collective and the Foundation for Digital Neurosurgery…
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Dr. George Tolis on Physician Pay, Private Practice, and a Valve Gone Wrong
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Cardiothoracic surgeon Dr. George Tolis, chief of cardiothoracic surgery in Boston, returns to The Doctors Lounge with hosts Dr. Anish Koka and Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation that opens with the newly proposed 2027 Medicare physician fee...
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Cremieux on FDA Reform, Fake Data, and the Columbia Admissions Hack
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Drs. Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio sit down with independent science writer Cremieux, the pseudonymous Substack author known for auditing primary data and calling out flawed research. The conversation ranges from FDA drug approval reform (Cremieux proposes a...
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Scott Becker on Building Becker's Healthcare, Physician Supply, and Private Enterprise
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio sit down with Scott Becker, founder of Becker's Healthcare and partner at McGuireWoods, on the business of medicine — his path from healthcare lawyer to media mogul, the real story behind physician supply shortages, why private...
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Martin Shkreli on Drug Pricing, Prison, and the Fraud That Shook Pharma
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio sit down with Martin Shkreli — the former hedge fund manager and pharma executive best known for the 2015 Daraprim price increase and his subsequent prison sentence — for a wide-ranging conversation on drug pricing, patent law, and...
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Do No Harm: Inside the Fight to Get Identity Politics Out of Medicine
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Stanley Goldfarb — nephrologist, former Associate Dean for Curriculum at Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, and founder of Do No Harm — joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio to trace how medical education drifted from clinical science toward social activism. Goldfarb...
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The Myocarditis Double Standard: COVID, the Vaccine, and the Pediatric Deaths That Went Unreported
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Tracy Beth Høeg returns alongside Dr. Venkatesh Murthy, NIH-funded cardiologist at the University of Michigan, to dissect the Senator Ron Johnson congressional memo detailing pediatric deaths following COVID-19 vaccination — deaths the FDA's own...
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David Zweig on Schools, Science, and the Media's COVID Failure
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Investigative journalist David Zweig joins Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio to discuss his book An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, The Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions — a heavily cited account of how public health authorities, the media, and a...
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Drug Pricing, Broken Incentives, and the 340b program Fixes Washington Won't Touch
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Ryan Long — former senior policy advisor to Speaker Kevin McCarthy and current non-resident senior scholar at the USC Schaefer Institute — joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for a deep dive into the structural failures driving American drug pricing. The conversation...
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Dr. Sanjay Dhall on Trauma, Medical Training, and the County Hospital That Doesn’t Bill
Episode Summary This week, Drs. DiGiorgio and Koka are joined by returning guest Dr. Sanat Dixit and special guest Dr. Sanjay Dhall, chief of neurosurgery at Harbor-UCLA and a leading spinal cord injury researcher. Dr. Dhall traces his path from a "commando shift" in a Houston trauma bay as a...
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The Atom Bomb Speaks: Tracy Høeg on COVID, Myocarditis, and the FDA From the Inside
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Tracy Høeg — physician, epidemiologist, and former Acting Director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research — joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for her first interview since being fired from the agency in May 2025. She traces her unusual path from...
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The ER Doc Who Quit the System - and Built His Own
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Noah Kaufman - board-certified emergency physician with 20 years in the ER, seven seasons on American Ninja Warrior, and a new direct acute care practice in Denver - joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio to talk about why he walked away from the employed medicine…
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The Cholesterol Debate: What the Keto Influencers Get Right (and Wrong)
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Greg Katz, preventive cardiologist at NYU Langone and co-host of Beyond Journal Club, joins Anish to dissect the online cholesterol debate — specifically the claims made by science communicator Nick Norwitz, who has maintained an LDL over 500 mg/dL on a…
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Gaming the System: LTACHs, Guidelines, and the Evidence Problem in American Medicine
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Anil Makam — hospitalist, health services researcher at UCSF, and faculty at Zuckerberg San Francisco General — joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation on the hidden mechanics of American healthcare. Makam breaks down long-term acute care...
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The FDA, Unicure, and the Limits of Accelerated Approval
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anish sits down with Adu, a med student and biotech investor, to work through the FDA's contested handling of Unicure's AMT-130 — a gene therapy for Huntington's disease delivered via stereotactic brain injection. They debate whether the underlying data justifies...
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Salty About Medical Education: Bryan Carmody on What the System Gets Wrong
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Pediatric nephrologist, medical educator, and "Sheriff of Sodium" Dr. Bryan Carmody joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio to challenge some of the most persistent narratives in American medicine. From the AAMC's physician shortage projections — which Carmody argues serve...
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Free Markets, Private Equity, and the Moral Case for Medicine
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Jared Rhoads, founder of the Center for Modern Health and senior lecturer in health policy at the Dartmouth Institute, joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation on the philosophical foundations of healthcare policy. Rhoads — an Objectivist in…
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George Tolis: TAVR, Broken Training, and What's Really Wrong With Cardiac Surgery.
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. George Tolis, section chief of coronary and general cardiac surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital, joins Drs. Koka and DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation on the state of cardiac surgery. He makes the case that TAVR — while genuinely transformative for...
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Center-Right in a White Coat: Pradeep Shanker on AI, Vaccines, and Medical Orthodoxy
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Radiologist, National Review senior contributor, and prominent center-right voice in medicine Pradeep Shanker joins Anish Koka and Anthony DiGiorgio for a wide-ranging conversation that covers AI's real (and overstated) role in radiology, the structural…
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The Surgeon Who Refused to Bow: Dr. Eithan Haim on Blowing the Whistle at Texas Children's
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. Eithan Haim, a general surgeon in the Dallas area, joins Anish to walk through the events that took him from chief resident at Baylor to facing four federal felony counts and up to 10 years in prison. While rotating at Texas Children's Hospital in 2022 and…
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From Babylon to Baylor: How Insurance Went Off the Rails
Send us Fan Mail Anish and Dr. DiGiorgio trace the history of insurance from ancient Babylonian bottomery contracts through Egyptian workers' guilds, Greek risk-pooling societies, Lloyd's of London, and the birth of actuarial science — then walk forward into the Great Fire of London, the 1929...
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Outpatient Brain Surgery: How Buffalo Built America's Only Neurosurgical ASC
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Anish and Anthony are joined by Dr. Elad Levy — Professor and Chair of Neurosurgery at the University at Buffalo, holder of the L. Nelson Hopkins Endowed Chair, and one of the country's most prolific physician innovators — for a wide-ranging conversation on how he...
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The Intellectual Case Against Medicare: Buchanan, Tullock, and the Rules of the Game
Send us Fan Mail Anish and Dr. DiGiorgio dig into the intellectual debate that preceded the 1965 passage of Medicare, focusing on the economists — James Buchanan, Gordon Tullock, Friedrich Hayek, Ludwig von Mises, Milton Friedman, and George Stigler — whose arguments against centralized…
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Rural Health Myths, Mark Cuban's HSA Gambit, and How Neurocritical Care Was Born
Send us Fan Mail Back from hiatus, Anish and Dr. DiGiorgio swap travel notes on Japan and San Diego before diving into Anish's recent Substack piece mapping emergency cardiac care access across the United States — where 98% of Americans live within 90 minutes of a PCI-capable hospital, a level of...
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From Tehran to the C-Suite: Biotech CEO Ali Mortazavi on AI, Drug Discovery, and the Me-Too Problem
Send us Fan Mail Guest: Ali Mortazavi | CEO, Tangram Therapeutics (formerly E-Therapeutics), London, UK Episode Summary: Ali Mortazavi is not your typical biotech CEO. A computer scientist by training, former professional chess player, and veteran of financial markets, he invested in an RNAi...
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Dr. DiGiorgio Goes to Washington: Site Neutrality, Stark Law Physician-Owned Hospitals & More
Send us Fan Mail Episode Summary Dr. DiGiorgio returns from testifying before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, the third in a series of hearings on healthcare costs covering the provider landscape. The two break down the major policy levers discussed in his testimony —...
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The Cost of Dissent: How a Viral Newsweek Op-Ed Led to Medical School Dismissal
Send us Fan Mail Kevin Bass, PhD, joins Anish and Dr. DiGiorgio to tell the story of how a viral Newsweek op-ed apologizing for his support of COVID lockdowns and mandates set off a chain of events that ended in his dismissal from Texas Tech's MD/PhD program. Kevin walks through the internal...
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The Shah's Spleen, Quality Metrics, Health Insurance & the FDA
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Anish Koka and Dr. Anthony DiGiorgio open with the little-known medical story behind the death of the Shah of Iran — how Mohammed Reza Pahlavi came to be operated on in Cairo in 1980 by legendary cardiovascular surgeon Michael DeBakey, and how the "comforting explanation"…
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Dr. Mary Talley Bowden Battles the Health System
Send us Fan Mail In this conversation, Dr. Mary Talley Bowden shares her experiences as an independent physician during the COVID-19 pandemic, detailing her courageous battle against health systems and the Texas Medical Board. She discusses the challenges faced by healthcare professionals, the...
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The Week in Review and Understanding the Medicaid Data Dump with Samir Unni
Send us Fan Mail Episode Title: The Medicaid Data Dump: $1.7 Billion in Billing From Shell Companies and Why Nobody Stopped It Guest: Samir Unni | Biomedical Engineer, former Palantir healthcare data lead, currently working on federal data modernization efforts Chapters 00:00 Introduction and...
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NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya
Send us Fan Mail In this engaging conversation, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya discusses his unique perspective as a health economist and the impact of his training on his approach to public health, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. He reflects on the Great Barrington Declaration, the importance…
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The $2 Million Verdict: Inside the First Detransition Lawsuit Trial
Send us Fan Mail Benjamin Ryan was the only journalist in the courtroom for every day of the first detransition lawsuit to reach a jury verdict. In January 2025, a White Plains jury awarded $2 million to Fox Varian, who received a double mastectomy at age 16 after being diagnosed with gender...
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Ed Gaines: How Independent Physicians Finally Got Leverage Against Insurance Companies
Send us Fan Mail Guest: Ed Gaines, JD, CPC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Zotec Partners Honorary Member, American College of Emergency Physicians Episode Summary: If you're a hospital-based physician and you don't understand the No Surprises Act, you're missing the biggest shift in…
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Dr. Gantwerker: Medicare Advantage, Private Practice, and Why Doctors Need to Stop Fighting on X
Send us Fan Mail What happens when a spine surgeon who's been in private practice since the Obamacare era sits down with doctors across the political spectrum? You get one of the most honest conversations about healthcare reform we've had. Brian Gantwerker doesn't fit neatly into anyone's box.…
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The DPC Revolution: Dr. Josh Umbehr on Making Healthcare Affordable Again
Send us Fan Mail Guest: Josh Umbehr, MD | Co-founder & CEO, Atlas MD | DPC Pioneer Summary: In 2010, Josh Umbehr launched Atlas MD charging $50/month for unlimited primary care with no insurance billing. Other doctors said it wasn't sustainable. Fourteen years later, he runs a platform serving...
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Journalist Alex Berenson: Fraud and Abuse with Autism therapy in the Medicaid Program
Send us Fan Mail Keywords Alex Berenson, COVID vaccine, Medicaid fraud, autism services, healthcare, investigative journalism, MCOs, AI in healthcare, public health, healthcare policy Summary In this conversation, Anish Koka and Alex Berenson delve into critical issues surrounding the COVID...
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The Trump Healthcare plan, AI in Medicine, Medical Liability, and the sketchy 340b drug program
Send us Fan Mail Send us a text Summary In this episode of the Doctor's Lounge, hosts Anish Koka, Anthony DiGiorgio, and Sanat Dixit delve into the complexities of healthcare policy, particularly focusing on recent statements made by former President Trump regarding healthcare reform. They…
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The ACA Subsidies, New Vaccine Schedules, Ezekiel Emmanuel, AI in Medicine
Send us Fan Mail Send us a text Keywords healthcare, ACA subsidies, vaccine schedule, AI in healthcare, concierge medicine, food pyramid, healthcare policy, public health, physician autonomy, healthcare costs Summary In this episode, the hosts delve into the complexities of healthcare, discussing...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
The Doctor's Lounge
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Doctor's Lounge have?
The Doctor's Lounge currently has 63 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Doctor's Lounge 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.
How often does The Doctor's Lounge release new episodes?
The Doctor's Lounge has 63 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Doctor's Lounge?
You can listen to The Doctor's Lounge on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Doctor's Lounge?
The Doctor's Lounge is created and hosted by The Doctor's Lounge.
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