What If Our Patients Didn’t Have to Choose Between Food and Medicine?

You shouldn’t need a PhD in insurance billing to understand why your medication costs $600 this month and $60 the next. But for millions of Americans, that’s the reality.

In this episode of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, I talk to pharmacist and startup founder Vinay Patel, whose decade-long career spans high-volume pharmacy operations, clinical program design, and now, drug pricing reform.

Vinay’s origin story begins with a moral injury: watching patients forced to choose between rent and medications. Instead of accepting the system as-is, he built one that works better. From negotiating fair reimbursement rates to empowering local pharmacies and cutting out predatory Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs), his work is restoring agency—one prescription at a time.

You’ll hear how he:

• Turned failure and scarcity into a superpower as a founder
• Built a mission-driven team by prioritizing soft skills over perfect résumés
• Designed cost-plus drug programs that serve patients first
• Protects independent pharmacies while keeping GLP-1s accessible

 

About the Guest:

"Failure means you’re learning. And in healthcare innovation, learning fast is everything.” – Vinay Patel

Vinay Patel is a pharmacist, entrepreneur, and healthcare reformer. After years running a home delivery pharmacy for 15,000+ patients a month, he founded MakoRx, a company that bypasses traditional pharmacy benefit managers to lower costs for employers and improve access for patients.

Vinay’s mission is deeply personal—and systemic. His company’s cost-plus model strengthens local pharmacies, bypasses industry bloat, and brings transparency to one of healthcare’s most broken sectors.

📍 Learn more at makorx.com or connect with Vinay on LinkedIn.

📚 Resources + Mentions:

🔗 MakeRx – Official Site

🔗 Vinay Patel, Pharm.D. on LinkedIn

🔗 Bottle of Lies by Katherine Eban

🔗 Proactive MD – Advanced Primary Care Partner

 

🔑 Top 3 Key Takeaways

• Drug prices in the U.S. vary wildly depending on who’s paying—and how Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) profit from the chaos.
• Moral injury can be a catalyst for innovation. When we step outside our comfort zone, change becomes possible.
• Independent pharmacies aren’t obsolete—they’re essential. Fair reimbursement and direct contracts can keep them alive.

 

🩺 About the Host

Dr. Andrea Austin is a board-certified emergency physician, educator, and passionate advocate for system-level change in healthcare. As the creator and host of Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare, Dr. Austin brings curiosity, compassion, and bold honesty to conversations with leaders who are challenging the norms and reshaping medicine from the inside out.

With decades of experience in high-pressure clinical environments, Andrea has seen firsthand the cracks in the system—and the people working to repair them. Whether she’s mentoring residents, speaking on national stages, or recording with a fellow disruptor, she centers one theme: change doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens heart to heart.

 

💫 About the Show

Heartline: Changemaking in Healthcare isn’t just a podcast—it’s a pulse check on what’s possible.

Hosted by emergency physician and educator Dr. Andrea Austin, Heartline features conversations with healthcare leaders, innovators, and quiet disruptors who are challenging the way things have always been done.

Each episode explores real stories of change—from redefining leadership and communication, to reimagining systems built on burnout and hierarchy. This is a space for truth-telling, for asking better questions, and for reconnecting with the reason we all got into medicine in the first place: to make it better. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress—with heart.

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🎓 Upcoming Events & Opportunities:

🔥 ⁠⁠Recalibrate: Group Coaching for Physicians⁠⁠

Starting in 2026,  I’ll be co-leading Recalibrate with psychologist and coach Sharee Johnson. This 6-month group coaching program supports physicians in rediscovering mindfulness, meaning, and wholehearted practice. I'm an alum myself—this program transformed my career. Learn more and enroll here.

•⁠ ⁠⁠⁠Women in Medicine Summit | Chicago, Sept 18–20, 2025⁠⁠

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