Video: 9 GI Interviews From Disruption To Digitization (NextServices)
These interviews provide insights on a diverse topics – from telemedicine to private equity to digitization. Watch them all now if you missed them before.

Physicians acquire 35-hospital health system from private equity firm (Becker’s Hospital Review)
A management group of physicians led by the company’s founder acquired a controlling interest of a hospital system from a private equity firm.

COVID-19 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on Medicare Fee-for-Service (FFS) Billing (CMS)
New FAQs include answers to questions on: outpatient therapy, telehealth and coding.

How COVID-19 affected Gastro Health — 3 insights from President Dr. James Leavitt (Becker’s GI & Endoscopy)
Becker’s covered our interview with Dr. Leavitt on how the healthcare system will change going forward.

Audio: The Scope: Whither the Device Rep, and Other Post-COVID Concerns for GI Practices (Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News)
Consultant Scott Fraser discusses how the pandemic has affected the relationship of physicians and the medical device industry, and the implications for GI practice.

Artificial intelligence detects COVID-19 for the first time in US (Healio)
According to results published in Nature Medicine, the CNN (The AI model — dubbed convolutional neural network) had 84% sensitivity.

Michael Seres, an influential patient who hacked together a ‘smart’ ostomy bag, dies at 51 (CNBC)
Before his twelfth birthday, he was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Years later, Seres was fitted with an ostomy bag to collect waste from his intestinal tract.

COVID-19 could cost insurers up to $547B through 2021: report (Fierce Healthcare)
An infection rate of 60% would cost insurers the greatest, with a range of $180 billion to $547 billion.

CRH Medical acquires GI anesthesia practice, starts joint venture (Becker’s GI & Endoscopy)
The practice provides gastrointestinal anesthesia services to two ASCs in the area and has an estimated annual revenue of $2.7 million.

Telehealth during COVID-19: What Capital Digestive Care learned (Healio)
Since implementing telehealth, this large GI practice saw more than 10,000 patients through virtual visits.

Video: Corey Siegel, MD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Gastroenterology, Discusses New National COVID-19 Registry (Dartmouth-Hitchcock)
Corey Siegel, MD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Gastroenterology discusses a new national registry for COVID-19 to help clinicians understand what GI symptoms might be associated with the disease.

HHS official: ‘Cat out of the bag’ on telehealth but unclear what changes will stick (Fierce Healthcare)
“Even now that they reopened their practice, 70% of visits [are] still telehealth visits.”

Where the GI PE platforms stand in 2020 (Becker’s GI & Endoscopy)
Private equity investment skyrocketed in gastroenterology in 2019, and although it’s expected COVID-19 will hamper activity temporarily going forward, here’s where each platform stands at the midpoint of 2020.

‘Expenses will increase and revenue will decrease’: A Michigan ASC admin’s future projections (Becker’s ASC Review)
Administrator of Crown Point Endoscopy outlines how her center has changed since reopening from the pandemic and how she’s planning for the future.

Industry Voices—Tech and the renaissance of clinical practice in a post-pandemic world (Fierce Healthcare)
If there is one “silver lining” in this pandemic, it’s the widespread willingness to use different technologies to connect with patients and physicians alike.

3 questions with the new ASGE president (Healio)
Interview with Klaus Mergener, MD. “All the plans we just talked about will now have to be viewed through the lens of the immediate crisis we’re in.”

Headlines for GI

Medicare and Commercial Insurances Telemedicine Billing Policies (NextServices)

Hospitals could struggle – and more will go bankrupt – until they get patients back in the door (CNBC)

How the digital health revolution is impacting GI (AGA)

Telehealth and other regulation waivers should continue beyond COVID-19, ACP says (Medical Economics)

COVID-19 and the cost of health care: What happens when the pandemic ends? (The Hill)

How Will COVID-19 Affect the Health Care Economy? (JAMA)

Miguel Regueiro, MD highlights several abstracts submitted to the 2020 Digestive Disease Week (Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News)

Healthcare 2030: Four Economic Scenarios (Marsh & McLennan Advantage)

Management of primary hepatic malignancies during the COVID-19 pandemic: recommendations for risk mitigation from a multidisciplinary perspective (The Lancet)

High-dose vitamin D does not reduce endoscopic recurrence of Crohn’s (Healio)

Video: COVID-19 and IBD Update (Crohn’s and Colitis Canada)

Report: State of Health IT Private Equity in the Era of COVID-19 (HIT Consultant)

GI symptoms plus loss of taste, smell, fever highly specific to COVID-19 (Healio)