A new Health Affairs study finds that cardiologists and gastroenterologists employed by hospitals or private equity groups charge about 21% more than independent physicians for the same procedures, despite no evidence of improved outcomes. Researchers suggest these higher negotiated rates stem from market power, not quality, with insurers failing to leverage bargaining power effectively.
Author: Abhay Panchal
Despite vast scientific and medical resources, the U.S. health-care system continues to underperform due to decades of market-driven policies that have prioritized profit over patient care. The privatization of Medicaid and Medicare has increased taxpayer costs while restricting patient access, as private insurers and equity firms—focused on shareholder gains—now dominate key clinical sectors. Policy shifts: The article argues that merely restoring pre-Trump conditions or balancing patient rights with investor interests is inadequate. True reform requires decommercializing U.S. health insurance and care delivery to realign the system around patient well-being rather than profit.
Objective: To assess how the use of different colorectal cancer (CRC) screening methods changed in the U.S. between 2017 and 2024 among privately insured adults aged 50–75. Study Design: A retrospective cohort study of ~25 million Blue Cross Blue Shield beneficiaries using claims data from 2017–2024, comparing the pre-COVID (2017–Feb 2020) and post-COVID (July 2020–Dec 2024) periods. Key Findings:
The American Medical Association has unveiled a new Center for Digital Health and AI to ensure physicians help shape how artificial intelligence is developed and deployed in healthcare. The initiative comes after two years of research into AI use in clinical practice and growing physician concerns around data privacy, safety, liability, and workflow fit. Key goals of the center include: AMA leaders stressed that physicians must be “full partners throughout the AI lifecycle” to ensure tools are clinically valid, ethically sound, and aligned with patient care.
How are clinicians to preserve core clinical skills in an era of algorithmic assistance? As artificial intelligence (AI) assumes a growing role in clinical practice, concern is mounting that off-loading clinical tasks and reasoning will lead to loss of skills (deskilling), adopting errors or bias from AI (mis-skilling), or failure to achieve competence (never-skilling; figure). Evidence for such skill attrition has been seen with automated interpretation of electrocardiograms or radiological images. An observational study published earlier this year, however, sharpens this concern, suggesting that experienced colonoscopists lost some proficiency in colon polyp detection when routine AI support was switched off.
Commercial insurers paid far less for common gastrointestinal procedures performed in ASCs than in hospital outpatient departments, a recent study found. Insurers paid an average of $1,042 (110%) more when a surgery occurred at an in-network HOPD compared to those performed at an in-network ASC. Out-of-network ASCs were also more expensive, costing insurers $306 (32%) more than in-network ASCs, according to a study published Oct. 6 in the American Journal of Managed Care.
Jacksonville, Fla.-based Borland Groover has appointed four new C-suite leaders, according to an Oct. 20 news release shared with Becker’s. The new executives join Jackie Kennedy, chief operating officer for Borland Groover’s ancillary division, who has been with the company since 2011. Vince Vitali will continue serving as chief information officer. According to the release, the leadership restructuring is designed to realign the executive team and position the organization for future growth.
With GLP-1 supply stabilizing after a 600% surge in U.S. use between 2018–2024, the obesity treatment market is on the brink of another transformation. A wave of late-stage drugs — spanning dual, triple, and non-GLP pathways — could rival bariatric surgery outcomes and reshape care delivery in 2026. Highlights include: Experts emphasize these therapies will not only expand choice for patients resistant to GLP-1s but also enable more personalized, long-term obesity care.
Oshi Health, the nationwide virtual multidisciplinary GI clinic, has launched Access+, a new program that provides GI practices with turnkey staffing support and virtual multidisciplinary care. Designed to relieve backlogs and reduce physician burnout, Access+ integrates Oshi’s GI-trained Advanced Practice Providers (APPs), dietitians, and behavioral health specialists directly into local practices’ workflows and EMRs. Key highlights:
New peer-reviewed data in Practical Laboratory Medicine confirms the analytical reliability of Geneoscopy’s scrape-free collection method used in the FDA-approved ColoSense® colorectal cancer screening test. Across more than 1,300 replicates, ColoSense showed high reproducibility under varied conditions — including different stool volumes, dietary interferences, freeze-thaw cycles, and transit times up to 120 hours. A prospective equivalency analysis demonstrated 94% agreement between in-lab FIT and traditional at-home FIT. Retrospective testing confirmed strong sensitivity for colorectal cancer and advanced adenomas. Unlike traditional methods, ColoSense eliminates patient handling of stool and standardizes testing in the lab, reducing variability and improving patient experience. Geneoscopy…