The ER Doc Who Quit the System  - and Built His Own

The ER Doc Who Quit the System - and Built His Own

Author: The Doctor's Lounge June 6, 2026 Duration: 1:02:16

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 model and built Cough Care, a cash-pay, fully transparent urgent care. The conversation covers the broken economics of emergency billing, why most urgent care is a race to the bottom, how price signals change both patient and physician behavior, and what a parallel direct care system could look like at scale -including the franchise model Kaufman is already planning.

Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction — Meet Dr. Noah Kaufman

02:12 What led to leaving the ER after 20 years

04:53 Becoming the patient — the moment everything clicked

09:33 What is Cough Care and where it sits between urgent care and the ER

13:54 Why he doesn't take insurance

16:30 How ER billing actually works — the 2.6 cm laceration rule

19:49 Can urgent care be shopped? The free market argument

21:17 One month in — what he's actually seeing

41:00 Does cost-consciousness lead to undertreating?

43:39 The culture of over-treatment and the evidence behind it

45:48 Longevity, peptides, and the gray market

54:25 Patient autonomy vs. clinical responsibility

1:01:36 What happens if every burned-out ER doc does this?

1:07:33 The franchise vision — scaling direct acute care nationwide

Co-Host Handles

@anish_koka and @drdigiorgio

Show Handle

@drsloungepod

Subscribe Links

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/44vw8eirsKKnjgNIrdDvrR

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-doctors-lounge/id1832097658

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheDoctorsLoungePod


In The Doctor's Lounge, the white coat comes off for a conversation that moves freely from the exam room to the boardroom. This isn't a lecture hall; it's the back table where practicing physicians gather to unpack the complex systems that define modern medicine. Hosted by Dutch Rojas and Anthony DiGiorgio, DO, with regular voices like Anish Koka, MD, Dan Choi, MD, and Sanat Dixit, MD, the discussions are built on frontline experience. You'll hear unfiltered perspectives on the policy debates that shape care, the realities of navigating business and entrepreneurship within a medical practice, and the constant push for meaningful reform. The dialogue is grounded in a shared commitment to physician autonomy and, ultimately, better patient outcomes. Each episode in this podcast connects the dots between clinical fitness and the health of the medical profession itself, offering a rare look at the challenges and opportunities that exist where patient care meets the mechanics of the healthcare industry. It's a space for the nuanced, often contentious, and always real conversations happening behind the scenes.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 61

The Doctor's Lounge
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