Video: Interview with Dr. Spinnell: “Everyone knows someone who had the virus” (NextServices)
Watch this interview to gain insights on opening up from Dr. Mitchell Spinnell from Bergen County, NJ – a red zone.

Medscape Physician Compensation Report 2020 (Medscape)
Practices report 55% decrease in revenue and 60% decrease in patient volume during COVID. Remote patient engagement increased by 225%.

An interview with Robert K. Cleary, MD, FACS, FASCRS (American College of Surgeons)
Gastroenterologist Dr. Clearly offers an emotional account of his battle with COVID as a patient. A must watch.

Medicare and Commercial Insurances Telemedicine Billing Policies (NextServices)
Commercial insurances may have different rules than Medicare. Here’s an lookup excellent resource to get paid correctly.

GI Symptoms Should Not Prompt Routine Screening for SARS-CoV-2, Group Says (Medscape)
Gastrointestinal symptoms may be less common in COVID-19 than previously thought.

PE will return. The question is, ‘When?’ — Edgemont’s Luke Mitchell explores post-COVID-19 market (Becker’s ASC)
“Seller valuation expectations do not just adjust overnight, and somebody who thought they were sitting on a $100 million business three months ago isn’t going to sell their business for half of that.”

Uncommon Presentation Of Covid-19: Gastrointestinal Bleeding (ScienceDirect)
Every patient undergoing endoscopy should be considered potentially infected or can infect others.

What Hospitals Overwhelmed by Covid-19 Can Learn From Startups (Harvard Business Review)
It’s time to invent new ways. A central business concept — the S curve — can help.

How COVID-19 Has Impacted Top Clinical Service Lines at Hospitals (RevCycle Intelligence)
COVID-19 continues to damage inpatient and outpatient volumes, with certain clinical service lines being hit harder than others. GI saw a drop of 10%.

COVID-19 possibly delayed 28M elective procedures (Becker’s ASC)
The COVID-19 pandemic could’ve canceled or delayed around 28.4 million elective procedures during its peak 12-week disruption.

Changes in GI Bleeding Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic (NEJM Journal Watch)
Patients are likely trying to avoid going to the hospital to prevent exposure and are thus presenting at later stages.

How Private Equity Is Ruining American Health Care (Bloomberg)
To make PE right for GI, it’s important to understand how it’s gone bad in other specialties. This is a severely critical article on private equity in healthcare.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Outpatient Visits: A Rebound Emerges (The Commonwealth Fund)
The rebound in provider visits is due to more in-person appointments rather than more telemedicine visits (see graphs).

‘We do not have much room for growth’: A GI center’s plans for the next 12 months amid the pandemic (Becker’s GI & Endoscopy)
Harbin Clinic Endoscopy Center in Rome, Ga., outlines how the center is resuming operations during the pandemic and what it expects in the next year.

COVID-19 in New York: Experiences of a Gastroenterologist  (AIG Hospitals)
Watch Dr. Amrita Sethi, Director of Pancreaticobiliary Endoscopy Services, Columbia University Medical Center New York, moderated by Dr. D Nageshwar Reddy, Chairman & Chief of Gastroenterology, AIG Hospitals.

Q&A: Addressing the explosive growth of telehealth use amid COVID-19 (Healio)
Dr. Kvedar: health system used telehealth for office visits less than 2,000 times in February 2020. Two months later, monthly telehealth office visits approached a quarter million.

Headlines for GI

AI stepping up against COVID-19 (NextServices)

What reopened endoscopy centers are doing & more: 4 GI industry key notes (Becker’s GI & Endoscopy)

COVID-19: Important Updates for GI Practices (ACG)

In final rule, CMS makes telehealth more widely available in Medicare Advantage plans (Healthcare Finance)

Covid-19 Will Accelerate the AI Health Care Revolution (Wired)

Is It Better to Be a Doctor Now Than It Was 50 Years Ago? (Physician Sense)

Digital health stocks are surging because ‘suddenly now we’re in the future’ (CNBC)

Covid-19: 3 Things we have to get right at re-entry (MedCity News)

The End of the Game (The Healthcare Blog)

ACG Magazine – The Discoverers: Development of the Colon Prep (ACG)

COVID-19 tests the value of artificial intelligence in medicine (Modern Healthcare)