Personal Primary Care And Weight Management

12/03/2025

Longevity medicine is moving faster than most people realize.

In the past few years, we’ve watched GLP-1 medications, PCSK9 inhibitors, metabolic therapies, hormone optimization tools, and even new dementia treatments become part of real clinical practice. These aren’t futuristic ideas anymore ,they’re already reshaping how we think about aging and prevention.

But there’s an important balance to remember.
Longevity medications can buy you time, but lifestyle is what buys you life.

In my latest Substack post, I break down the medications that truly matter, the science behind them, and how they fit into a smarter, preventive-care approach to aging. If you care about your long-term health, this is worth a read.

Here’s the full article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/physicianstrong/p/the-new-longevity-toolkit-medications?r=ebdqq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

12/02/2025

This morning, I have the solemn duty of sharing that my long-time patient and friend, Robin, passed away after his fight with cancer. Robin and I had known each other for nearly 15 years, from the time he and his wife, Beth, whom we also lost last year, became my patients.

One thing I truly value as a healer is how the bonds we form in care transcend all differences. Robin was Jewish and I am Muslim, but those labels never mattered in the face of the simple, shared humanity that defines the relationship between a doctor and a patient. We never needed to focus on any divides; instead, we found so much meaning in the trust, the conversations, and the genuine human connection that healthcare can bring.

At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about: humanity and compassion. Robin, you will be deeply missed, and I am grateful for the time we shared.

11/30/2025

Most Americans have no idea how much of their tax money disappears into the healthcare bureaucracy before it ever reaches a patient. But those of us working inside the system see it every day.

Here’s the blunt truth.

The federal government spends roughly a quarter of its entire budget on healthcare programs. Put that in personal terms: if you pay $20 in federal taxes, about $5-plus of it goes straight to Medicare, Medicaid, ACA subsidies, VA care, and other federal health programs.

Now the part that should make every taxpayer furious:

Around 15–30% of that healthcare spending is pure administrative overhead.
Billing departments. Coding rules. Insurance middlemen. Prior auth teams. Compliance layers. Entire corporations built around paperwork, not patients.

That means out of every $20 you pay, $1–$1.50 goes to bureaucracy before a single dollar touches an exam room, medication, nurse, or physician.

Zoom out to the national picture: nearly $3–$6 out of every $20 America spends on healthcare is swallowed by administration. Not care. Not outcomes. Not health.

And the workforce numbers tell the story even better:

• Physician growth over the last few decades: up ~150%
• Healthcare administrator growth: up ~3,000%

Doctors doubled.
Administrators multiplied exponentially.

By the mid-2010s, the U.S. had ten non-clinical workers for every one physician. Not because patients became more complex, but because the system did.

This is why costs keep climbing while outcomes stay flat. We don’t have a healthcare delivery problem — we have a healthcare management problem.

Here’s the path forward: physician leadership.

Clinicians understand workflow, patient complexity, triage, risk, resource allocation, and what truly drives outcomes. When physicians lead organizations, the focus shifts back to value instead of volume, patient outcomes instead of paperwork, and long-term health instead of short-term billing cycles.

If we want an efficient, humane, and sustainable healthcare system, we need fewer layers of bureaucracy and more clinicians in charge of how care is designed and delivered.

The solution isn’t throwing more money at the machine.
It’s putting the people who actually care for patients in the driver’s seat.

11/28/2025

Let’s stop pretending routine healthcare is expensive. It isn’t. A preventive physical is a conversation, an exam, and basic labs. A CBC, CMP, lipid panel, and UA should cost twenty-five dollars. Not five hundred. Not a thousand. Twenty-five.

If you have high blood pressure and high cholesterol, your meds — lisinopril and atorvastatin — should run you less than $20 a month combined. That’s the real price.

You sprain your wrist? X-ray: under $50. Not $800. Not $2,300. Fifty.

A healthy family of five should be able to cover all routine medical needs for under $5,000 per year paying cash.

But instead, American families are lighting $30,000 a year on fire in insurance premiums… then getting slapped with $10,000 deductibles on top of that. Meaning you pay tens of thousands before your “insurance” does anything. It’s a scam dressed up as a benefit.

You’re not “insured.”
You’re subsidizing a vertically integrated cartel of insurance companies, PBMs, corporate hospital systems, and middlemen who add zero clinical value but extract maximum dollars.

This system is not broken by accident.
It is engineered to drain you and silence independent physicians who actually know what care should cost.

I’m done staying quiet.
Independent physicians need to speak up loudly, and expose the machinery that keeps patients hostage and healthcare unaffordable.

If we want real change, we can’t whisper.
We have to call out the corruption, tear down the bloat, and bend the damn cost curve.
Time to bring sanity back to healthcare.
Time to make America healthy again.

11/26/2025

We are beyond grateful for the incredible generosity of everyone who donated food to our food drive. Your kindness and support are making a real difference in the lives of those who need it most.

Today, we had the privilege of dropping off your donations to The Mayflower Marathon in Springfield to benefit Springfield’s Open Pantry.

Your support helps strengthen our community and also inspires hope and reinforces the importance of looking out for one another.

As we enter this season of gratitude we want to wish all families a warm, safe, and Happy Thanksgiving. May it be filled with peace, connection, and appreciation for the blessings we share!

Thank you once again for making a meaningful difference.

11/25/2025

Same doctor. Same room. Higher bill — only because a hospital bought the practice

Most people don’t realize this, but you actually pay more to see the exact same doctor (including me) if that doctor is employed by a hospital rather than practicing independently.

This happens because of “facility fees,” a billing loophole that lets hospitals charge extra simply because a visit is labeled as “hospital-based,” even when the care takes place in a regular outpatient clinic.

Over the past decade, I’ve watched independent practices across Western Massachusetts disappear as hospitals acquired them. This consolidation has disrupted continuity, reduced patient access, and increased costs, without improving quality.

According to some estimates, making payments site-neutral (paying the same amount for the same service, no matter where it’s delivered) could save up to $150 billion in the next 10 years.

When independent practices vanish, patients lose affordable, community-based options. Nonprofit hospital systems,often tax-exempt,then benefit from higher Medicare payments and increased market power.

As a primary care physician, I believe patients deserve transparency, choice, and value , not a system where corporate ownership determines the price of your visit.

Healthcare should reward care, not consolidation.

Let independent physicians run healthcare. Physician Strong

11/18/2025

Remote monitoring saves lives , and saves the system money.
But insurers still refuse to support it.

I recently saw a patient with new-onset diabetes and an A1c of 12. We placed a CGM and connected him to our remote monitoring portal so we can adjust his medications in real time. This is what modern primary care looks like: proactive, data-driven, and focused on preventing problems before they become emergencies.

But when I checked his insurance (United), remote patient monitoring wasn’t covered.
We’ll still provide the service, because the patient comes first , but small primary care practices end up unpaid while insurers continue to profit.

The irony?
Tools like CGMs and remote monitoring prevent complications, avoid unnecessary ER visits, and keep people healthier,which ultimately lowers costs for everyone.

Primary care is ready to deliver smarter, more efficient care.
It’s time for insurers to support the innovations that actually make healthcare better and more affordable.

Learn more and follow my blog

by Talal Khan M.D

11/15/2025

Did you know that the lack of price transparency in healthcare is deliberate?

Here’s a real example:

Your doctor orders a simple test.
Insurance “negotiates” a rate of $120 from a hospital-owned provider.
You pay it toward your $5,000 deductible.

What you don’t know:
The cash price for that same test is $15.

Yes… fifteen dollars.

Insurance companies, PBMs, hospital systems, and pharmacy chains have created vertically integrated networks designed to maximize profit — not patient care. When all the major players are financially connected, the prices go up and the patient pays the price.

This is exactly why insurance companies have been buying up PBMs, physician practices, and pharmacies. The more they control, the more they profit.

It’s time for all of us,patients, physicians, and businesses, to demand price transparency.
We deserve to know what we’re paying for.