Amazon’s app-based healthcare service for employees, Amazon Care, will soon launch throughout the country, Insider reported this past Friday. Although it is currently only available to the tech giant’s Washington-based employees, sources told the outlet that Amazon Care is gearing up to offer the service for the rest of its U.S. workers. It will also invite employers to use the service as well, said Insider. Amazon Care declined Healthcare IT News’ requests for comment. WHY IT MATTERS Currently, the Amazon Care app connects Washington-based employees to providers for a wide range of primary and urgent care services. Those in the greater Seattle…
Author: Praveen Suthrum
CENTER VALLEY, Pa., March 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Olympus announced today FDA 510(k) clearance of Narrow Band Imaging® (NBI) to assess the neoplastic potential of colorectal polyps. By applying the NBI International Colorectal Endoscopic (NICE) classification during a screening colonoscopy, physicians can make high-confidence predictions of histology for polyps 5mm or smaller, known as diminutive polyps. Patients and healthcare systems can benefit from implementation of NBI as a decision-making support tool. The data submitted to the FDA in support of the 510(k) clearance included a meta-analysis of prospective real-time clinical studies of NBI use during colonoscopy.1 The data show experienced endoscopists employing…
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a broad impact on virtually all health care delivery, but one of the hardest hit areas is screening for colorectal cancer and subsequent follow-up for the disease. One institution’s analysis found that almost 10,000 fewer colonoscopies were performed in 2020 than 2019. “The takeaway from our data is that as fewer colonoscopies occurred, fewer new-patient visits for CRC occurred,” said co-lead author Nicholas Perkons, an MD-PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, in Philadelphia. In a poster presented at the 2021 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (abstract 30), Perkons and his colleagues reported…
CMS has announced that it is increasing the Medicare payment rate for administering COVID-19 vaccine doses, in some instances by more than 75%. The payment will increase from about $28 to $40 for physicians, hospitals, pharmacies and “many other immunizers” to administer a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, and from about $45 to $80 for administering a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine. The exact payment that physicians receive will vary depending on the type of organization that administers the vaccine and where the organization is located, according to a CMS press release.
VANCOUVER, BC, March 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ – CRH Medical Corporation (“CRH”, or the “Company”) (TSX: CRH) (NYSE MKT: CRHM) today announces a startup joint venture (“JV”) where CRH owns a 51% interest in a gastroenterology anesthesia practice located in Largo, Florida. The JV services a single ambulatory surgery center (“ASC”). CRH and its partners will contribute this entity into its existing JV with FDHS Anesthesia, LLC. Financial Highlights: Estimated annual revenue of US $1.7 millionEBITDA and cash flow accretive Dr. Tushar Ramani, CEO of CRH, commented on the JV, “We now provide services to 71 ambulatory surgery centers across 14 states, and we see ample opportunity for additional…
In September 2019, Becker’s ASC Review published an article written by VMG Health titled “Gastroenterology: An Emerging Trend in Private Equity Healthcare Transactions.” This article discussed private equity (“PE”) firms’ increased interest in the gastroenterology (“GI”) provider industry, the current market dynamics and value creation opportunities within the GI industry, players in the space, and the future of PE transactions in GI. Since our previous article was published, the market continues to see consolidation of GI physician practices by PE or PE-backed firms. Most notably, we have begun to notice a shift from the formation of platform GI businesses to…
Minneapolis, MN and Cambridge, MA, March 17, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Provation and Iterative Scopes announced today an exclusive partnership, bringing together the premier clinical productivity and gastroenterology (GI) documentation software provider with a leading startup in Artificial Intelligence (AI) for precision GI. Through this partnership, the two companies are focused on delivering AI-based solutions to healthcare providers and life science researchers, including AI-assisted diagnostic tools, procedure documentation, and clinical trial recruitment.
The concept of burn-out, defined as a complex construct of emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation and a decline in personal achievement, was first introduced by Herbert Freudenberg nearly five decades ago.1 Burn-out affecting all levels of healthcare professions is increasingly reported in the literature.2–4 Up to one-half of gastroenterologists report burn-out, with increased rates among trainees, early career physicians and interventional endoscopists.5 A recent UK survey on practising gastroenterologists reported significant rates of emotional ill health and work-related stress which impacted work performance.6 The factors contributing to burn-out among gastroenterologists include excessive clinical work load with increasing demands related to the complexity of patient care,…
Dallas-based GI Alliance is the biggest private equity-backed gastroenterology platform in the U.S. GI Alliance, led by President Jim Weber, MD, has aggressively expanded since first closing its deal with Waud Capital Partners in November 2018. Here’s how it got that way: November 2018: Waud Capital Partners and Southlake-based Texas Digestive Disease Consultants close a deal. They establish the GI Alliance, a practice management company based in Dallas. Dr. Weber is the president and CEO of TDDC. July 2019: The GI Alliance enters into a deal with Evanston-based Illinois Gastroenterology Group, becoming the first established PE-backed GI platform to expand.
New Jersey-based Allied Digestive Health recently became the 8th private equity platform in gastroenterology. In this interview, Dr. Robert Gialanella, CEO/President and Dr. Nadeem Baig, Vice President of Allied Digestive Health talk about their journey – from being competitors to partners to choosing private equity and more. Learn about how they consolidated without private equity first, building the largest GI group in New Jersey. They talk about the “generational divide” between the senior and junior partners and reflected on how they tackled this situation at Allied. They also shared their views on consolidations, disruptions, and EBITDA assumptions. Finally, they laid out four trends as gastroenterology moves to the future.…