What happens when a physician searches her own name online and gets redirected to a billionaire-backed corporate clinic she has no connection to? Stephanie Waggel, a physician and founder of Improve Medical Culture, explains how vertical integration in health care is quietly suffocating independent practices while most doctors and patients have no idea it is happening. Based on her KevinMD article, "The dangers of vertical integration in health care," this conversation unpacks how a single corporate entity can own the insurance company, the pharmacy benefit manager, the drug distributor, the retail pharmacy, and the provider group all at once. Waggel breaks down why this consolidation drives up costs rather than lowering them, how private equity and venture capital firms pressure physician-owned practices into selling, and why the consumer ultimately loses when one entity controls pricing at every step. You'll hear her compare health care models across the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, learn why she believes pharmacists should own pharmacies and doctors should own clinics, and discover the community-based survival strategies independent practitioners are using to stay visible. If you care about the future of the doctor-patient relationship and the survival of independent medicine, this one deserves your attention.

Tune into our episode "2026 Cholesterol Guidelines: LDL goals, lipoprotein(a), and coronary calcium scoring," brought to you by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

For the first time in eight years, LDL cholesterol goals have changed, and preventive cardiologist Seth Baum says the new guidelines are a long-overdue course correction. He breaks down the new LDL targets for your highest-risk patients, why the LDL hypothesis should be retired in favor of the LDL fact, why lipoprotein(a) screening finally belongs in every patient's workup, what a coronary calcium score over 300 really means for how aggressively you treat, and how to talk to statin-skeptical patients without losing their trust. Listen now at KevinMD.com/cholesterol.

VISIT SPONSOR → https://kevinmd.com/cholesterol

Partner with me on the KevinMD platform. 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

SUBSCRIBE TO THE PODCAST → https://www.kevinmd.com/podcast

RECOMMENDED BY KEVINMD → https://www.kevinmd.com/recommended