Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist

👨🏽‍⚕️OB Anesthesiologist | 📡Broadcast Journalist | 🕵🏼‍♂️ Investigator | Opinions ≠ employers’ or advice.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

Chilling. This piece details some of the very real consequences doctors now face when providing medical care.
https://t.co/WnvmnPN77L

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@spartywrx @dp_oneill He’s written that: “Health care providers generally have far more market power than insurers.”

So pretty clear where @dp_oneill is coming from.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

Job requirements:

✅ Never set foot in an OR
✅ Fluent in "QPA"
✅ Can demand a counterfactual from others, never from yourself
✅ Call every physician group "PE-backed" on sight
✅ Arnold Ventures approved

Bonus: believe 125% of Medicare is generous

[Loren Adler @LorenAdler]

Apply to be a research assistant at Brookings (to start next summer): https://t.co/NNme75A9l3

The deadline's fast approaching, tomorrow, October 16th.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@DFWAlex2289 @toddarcher Need about four sets welded on

[John Asghar @JahangirAsgha10]

Using federal power to restrict physicians’ ability to negotiate with private insurers is fundamentally un-American.

Some members of Congress and Washington think tanks are advocating government-set payments or contracting mandates for certain physician services covered by private insurance. These proposals would give Washington greater control over relationships between private businesses.

We are talking about private insurance, not Medicare.

Would hospital executives accept Congress setting their compensation? Would the lawyers representing insurers accept federally imposed fees to reduce healthcare spending?

Their work costs money too. Yet physicians are expected to accept restrictions on their ability to negotiate as reasonable healthcare policy.

My objection starts with the principle. An independent physician should be able to negotiate payment for their work. The desire to save money does not, by itself, justify giving the government control over that relationship.

I own an independent practice. I should be able to negotiate its contracts with another private business.

An insurer wanting to pay less does not justify using federal power to weaken my bargaining position.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@nikillinit I’ve never heard anyone in healthcare express that “common” belief.

I do hear frequently that tech bros don’t know jack all about running healthcare.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@CPopeHC @DrDiGiorgio If you really think that will solve your problem, I recommend studying the anesthesia workforce in the mid-90s. Keep pushing to worsen the practice environment and people simply will choose other fields. You really think limited supply will resolve with lower pay?

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@DGlaucomflecken @remindmetweets 2075

[Sarah Zhang @sarahzhang]

Earlier this year, I heard about several kids who died after anesthesia—and others who suffered catastrophic brain damage. I wrote about one mother, and her quest to figure out what happened to her son.

https://t.co/SIGESLgJGA

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@ebarica @ke0in @NutthapongMAN see: today’s tape

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@ebarica @ke0in @NutthapongMAN Just an overhang to be aware of. Not necessarily a long-term risk. But a potential short-term risk for price action.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@ke0in @NutthapongMAN $MRLN "institutional ownership surges" is misleading — it's FR Capital's 9/18 distribution reclassifying into 47 new LP holders, not fresh buying. Same supply, more hands. Real risk is still Bleichroeder's unfiled 8.33M.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@Codie_Sanchez Source: 2019. Conceptually true; but irrelevant list now.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@nytimes How do you include shows still in production?

Great series finales are important to the legacy of historically great shows.

[Merlin @MerlinAero]

America answers with engineering.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@OGdukeneurosurg Not really about hierarchy. It’s about common courtesy. Who just bumps someone out of the way who is talking to the patient, so they can take over?

I think you can remain focused on good patient care while also being collegial.

[Shawarma Capital @ShawarmaCapital]

I flew in an airplane with nobody flying it.

Yesterday I walked into $MRLN’s flight test hangar at Quonset Point. Submarines under construction on one side of the field. Air National Guard C-130s on the other. In the middle: a hangar where software is being taught to fly airplanes.
They put me in the back of a Cessna Grand Caravan, and the system took off by itself.

Flew the mission by itself. We redrew the route mid-flight from a tablet and it took the new plan instantly. Restricted airspace renders as hard boundaries it will not enter. Deterministic limits under the AI. Redundancy in software, power, hardware.

Then came the moment I’ll be telling people about for years.
A voice answered ATC in my headset. It didn’t belong to anyone in the airplane.

Merlin Pilot talks on the radio.

Reads back its clearances.

The controller didn’t care. To the airspace system, it was just another airplane on the frequency.
Then it landed. Smoother than most airline landings I’ve sat through. Zero manual pilot inputs, gate to gate.

The pilot supervising it used to fly military C-130s. The contract Merlin is executing for SOCOM is taking the C-130J from 2 pilots down to 1. And a test pilot is a professional skeptic by trade. This one is convinced. That told me more than any deck ever could.

Full field notes from inside the hangar, the cabin, and the headset - the flight, the tech, the numbers, and what would make me wrong:

Long $MRLN. Not investment advice.

[Matthew George @NotMattGeorge]

Honored to welcome @SenWhitehouse (D-RI) to Quonset yesterday, the first time a sitting senator has joined us for a demo flight.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@Health_Affairs How are we to take this seriously?

Three of the four authors received @Arnold_Ventures funding, a philanthropy with a clearly stated view that “providers and middlemen” have abused IDR.

@EdGainesIII @texmed #NoSurprisesAct

[Sarah Kliff @sarahkliff]

@DrJLozada @charlesornstein @nytimes There are issues with non-payment but hard to tell how pervasive they are since the government does not track it. We have had some plans tell us outright they do not play awards they consider "unreasonable," such as an award higher than billed charges.

[Dr. James Lozada, Physician Journalist @DrJLozada]

@sarahkliff @charlesornstein @nytimes The money is awarded in arbitration. Is there evidence it’s actually being paid in the awarded amounts to the arbitration winner by the loser?