The 2025 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule cuts physician payments by 2.83%, while hospital and ASC payments rise by 2.9%. COVID-19 telehealth flexibilities end in 2024, reinstating pre-pandemic restrictions unless Congress acts. CMS declined new telemedicine visit codes but expanded colorectal cancer (CRC) screening policies, now covering blood-based biomarker tests and ensuring follow-on colonoscopies are cost-free for patients.
Author: Abhay Panchal
CuraLinc Healthcare has partnered with Oshi Health to integrate mental and digestive health care for employees. The collaboration combines advanced technology and personalized support to address interconnected health issues like anxiety and gastrointestinal conditions. This holistic approach includes evidence-based diagnosis, multidisciplinary care, and improved access, promoting early intervention and better chronic condition management. The partnership aims to reduce fragmented care, enhance employee satisfaction, and deliver sustainable benefits for both employees and employers.
Washington Gastroenterology (WaGI), part of the GI Alliance, has partnered with WovenX Health to enhance GI care through WovenX’s on-demand telehealth platform. This collaboration, showcased at the American College of Gastroenterology Conference, has effectively reduced emergency department visits by offering virtual care for GI symptoms. Over 97% of virtual visits were deemed appropriate for initial care, with a high patient satisfaction score (NPS® of 94). The platform provides GI-trained providers within 30 minutes, improving care access and coordination while reducing healthcare costs, positioning the partnership as a model for future healthcare innovations.
“Maya AI Interviews Praveen on The Shift: Insights into the Future of Healthcare” This latest Scope Forward Show interview is something truly unique. Maya, an AI avatar, takes the lead, asking thought-provoking questions about my new book, The Shift. Together, we explore the future of gastroenterology and healthcare, discussing why this book matters and why now is the time for this conversation. The most intriguing part? By the end of the interview, what initially feels unconventional—an AI conducting an interview—will feel completely natural. And that’s how shifts happen: so subtly that they seem like they’ve always been this way. I’m…
A study from the University of Pennsylvania, presented at the 2024 Digestive Disease Week (DDW), found that GLP-1 receptor agonists are effective for weight loss in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and are well-tolerated, showing a similar safety profile to that seen in the general population. Conducted by Dr. Priya Sehgal and colleagues, this study evaluated 244 patients with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis on GLP-1 therapy for three to six months, noting an average weight reduction of just over 5% at 12 weeks. Semaglutide users experienced slightly higher weight loss, with reductions exceeding 6%.
Lawmakers and physician organizations, including the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), are rallying behind the Medicare Patient Access and Practice Stabilization Act to avoid a 2.8% Medicare reimbursement cut and provide a modest 1.8% increase for 2025. This bipartisan effort, led by Rep. Greg Murphy, MD (R-NC), seeks to address financial strains on physicians, including rising practice costs and stagnating Medicare reimbursements. Rep. Murphy notes that without intervention, Medicare’s planned reimbursement changes could lead to a 6.4% effective cut for doctors next year.
A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against High Focus Centers, a private equity-backed mental health provider, following the suicide of Stephen Henry LaSala Jr. The lawsuit, brought by his widow Marianne LaSala, alleges that the facility’s negligent outpatient care led to his death. LaSala, who had struggled with mental health issues, was under stable care for years with a psychiatrist. After his psychiatrist’s retirement and a suicide attempt in 2022, he received inpatient stabilization at New York Presbyterian before transitioning to High Focus’ outpatient “Partial Hospitalization Program.” However, according to the complaint, this program lacked the intensive support implied…
This paper categorizes smartwatch applications in healthcare into three domains: monitoring, nudging, and predicting. Each offers distinct health benefits: The study emphasizes the potential of smartwatches to reduce healthcare costs and improve outcomes but highlights challenges like data accuracy, privacy concerns, usability, and integration with healthcare records. Regulatory and standardization frameworks are recommended to ensure that smartwatches function as reliable medical devices while addressing data security and ethical use in patient care.
Oracle Health has introduced its next-generation Clinical AI Agent, built on advanced generative AI, aimed at improving clinical workflows and patient-provider interactions. Rebranded from its original “Clinical Digital Assistant,” this AI-driven tool leverages Oracle Cloud Infrastructure for secure and continuous service. It assists physicians by automating patient documentation, facilitating clinical decision-making, and offering multilingual support. The AI system reduces the time providers spend on documentation by an average of 41%, equating to over an hour saved daily, which can be dedicated to direct patient care. The tool’s integration with electronic health records enables efficient task automation, from recording patient interactions…
A new blood test for colorectal cancer screening, recently approved by the FDA, offers an alternative for individuals reluctant to undergo traditional colonoscopies, though it is less effective at detecting and preventing the disease. In a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers found that blood tests performed every three years are associated with 2.5 times more colorectal cancer deaths compared to colonoscopy screenings every ten years. While the blood test detected over 83% of colorectal cancer cases, it only identified precancerous polyps in 13% of cases, making it significantly less effective for early detection and prevention than…