Guardant Health (GH) secured a major win as CMS approved Advanced Diagnostic Laboratory Test (ADLT) status for its Shield blood test for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening, enabling Medicare reimbursement at $1,495 starting April 1, 2025—up from the previously assumed $920. Analysts, including William Blair’s Andrew Brackmann, view this as a significant positive, estimating it could add approximately $10 million in revenue, with further potential upside if adoption scales.
Author: Abhay Panchal
Hinge Health’s long-anticipated IPO is generating significant buzz as the first major digital health offering since Waystar’s debut in 2024, raising questions about whether the public markets will value Hinge at or near its prior $6.2 billion private valuation. While the company has shown impressive revenue growth to $390.4M in 2024 and improved margins, concerns remain about future growth beyond the saturated self-insured employer market and its ability to expand beyond musculoskeletal (MSK) care into adjacent areas like behavioral health or GI. As a leader in digital MSK, Hinge faces pressure to either build or buy capabilities in new clinical…
The AGA Quality Committee, in collaboration with the Rome Foundation, has developed nine evidence-based quality indicators for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), covering evaluation, diagnosis, and management. These include taking a detailed patient history, testing for celiac disease in IBS-D or IBS-M patients, using fecal calprotectin for IBS-D evaluation, and avoiding routine colonoscopy in IBS patients without alarm features.
Yen Luu, the former billing manager at San Jose (Calif.) Gastroenterology, filed a complaint against the GI group for harassment, unlawful retaliation, wrongful termination and other employment-related claims, according to court documents reviewed by Becker’s.
Physicians are bracing for a 6.3% Medicare pay cut, marking the fifth consecutive year of reductions, as Congress fails to adjust reimbursement rates in its latest spending package. While Republican leadership has pledged to address this issue in an upcoming budget reconciliation bill, physicians are warning that continued cuts will jeopardize patient access, especially for the 66 million Americans on Medicare, and worsen the ongoing crisis in rural healthcare. These reductions disproportionately harm smaller and independent practices, as doctors face rising costs without inflation adjustments, leading to practice closures, longer patient wait times, and reduced care quality.
Physicians often face a heartbreaking reality: caring for patients under a system that rewards procedures over prevention, leaving them overburdened and under-incentivized to focus on long-term health. CMS’s current reimbursement model favors expensive interventions while underpaying preventative care efforts like RPM and CCM, and even value-based care models struggle under the weight of financial risk providers are unwilling to bear. Instead of minor penalties like the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, a bold shift to outcome-based incentives—such as call options on rehospitalizations—could financially reward providers for keeping patients out of the hospital, realigning physician motivation with patient well-being.
Cylinder, a leading virtual digestive health provider, has announced a partnership with Teladoc Health to broaden access to high-quality gastrointestinal care for health plan and employer members. With digestive health issues impacting up to 70 million Americans and costing $136 billion annually, this collaboration allows Teladoc’s customers to seamlessly offer Cylinder’s personalized, evidence-based GI care through Teladoc’s Prism platform. Cylinder’s services include access to gastroenterologists, dietitians, and health coaches, delivering tailored care for all acuity levels.
A new Health Affairs study highlights a growing problem for healthcare consumers: higher physician turnover rates in private equity (PE)-acquired practices. Analyzing 200 ophthalmology practices bought by PE firms between 2014 and 2021, researchers found that physician turnover jumped from 4.9% before acquisition to 22.2% afterward — a staggering 17.3 percentage point increase. In contrast, similar non-PE-acquired practices saw turnover grow only slightly, from 7.7% to 8.8%.
In the latest episode of Spill, Medtronic Chairman and CEO Geoff Martha takes us on a journey through the next 100 years of health technology. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast or someone interested in the future of AI and robotics, this episode is packed with insights on the latest innovations transforming the industry.
A new study published in JAMA Network Open found that using an Automatic Quality Control System (AQCS) during routine colonoscopy significantly increased adenoma detection rates (ADR), particularly among low- and medium-level detectors. In this multicenter randomized trial in China involving over 1,200 patients, the AQCS-assisted group achieved an ADR of 32.7% compared to 22.6% in the standard colonoscopy group. AQCS also improved detection of nonadvanced adenomas and flat or sessile lesions, with benefits seen across both academic and non-academic centers. Although the AQCS group had slightly longer withdrawal times, no serious adverse events occurred. Researchers conclude that AQCS can meaningfully…