26 gastroenterology updates in May

Here are 26 gastroenterology updates Becker's reported on in May:

1. Gastroenterologists were among the top five highest earning specialties in 2022.
2. Geneva, Ala.-based Wiregrass Medical Center is the least expensive hospital to receive a colonoscopy.
3. Cleveland, Texas-based Texas Emergency Hospital is the most expensive hospital to receive a colonoscopy.
4. Twenty percent of gastroenterologists have not yet decided if they will drop Medicare and Medicaid patients.
5. Fifty-two percent of gastroenterologists see patients for 30 to 40 hours a week.
6. About 20 percent of gastroenterologists have had their income affected by nonphysician practitioners this year.
7. Jacksonville, Fla.-based gastroenterology provider Borland Groover has broken ground on a new endoscopy center and ASC in St. Johns County, Fla.
8. Tampa-based Florida Medical Clinic will add a gastroenterology practice at its Wesley Chapel, Fla.-based Epperson/Watergrass campus in July. 
9. Artificial intelligence bot ChatGPT made headlines earlier this year when it passed the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam; however, when given the American College of Gastroenterology's pre-board assessment, it failed to make the grade. 
10. Dalton, Ga.-based Hamilton Physician Group-Gastroenterology added two new gastroenterologists to its team: Larry Shuster, MD, and Sergio Quijano, MD.
11. In June, new prior authorization rules from UnitedHealthcare concerning select gastroenterology procedures will take effect, requiring patients and physicians to seek authorization for gastroenterology endoscopy services, including esophagogastroduodenoscopies, capsule endoscopies, diagnostic colonoscopies and surveillance colonoscopies. 
12. York, Pa.-based WellSpan Health is opening an outpatient endoscopy center and expanding its digestive health services in West Earl, Pa.
13. On average, gastroenterologists make $252,000 more annually than physicians working in public health and preventive medicine, the lowest-earning physician specialty.
14. The American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy gathered over 175 physician groups to cosign a letter to the UnitedHealthcare CEO opposing upcoming changes to prior authorization for GI endoscopy procedures.
15. New York topped the list of states that are most in-demand for permanent placement opportunities for gastroenterologists.
16. Hillsboro, Ohio-based Highland District Hospital expanded its gastroenterology services through the addition of three Gastro Health physicians: Daniel Debo, DO; Andrew Chun, MD; and Robert Kindel, MD.
17. Ohio Gastroenterology Group purchased a medical office building near its Columbus headquarters for $1.5 million.
18. Surgeons at the Veterans Affairs medical system are less effective at identifying adenomas in routine colonoscopies than gastroenterologists.
19. Digital digestive healthcare company Vivante added two gastroenterology specialists to its medical advisory board.
20. Iterative Health, a gastroenterology medtech company, teamed up with West Long Branch, N.J. -based Allied Digestive Health to help with patient recruitment for inflammatory bowel disease clinical trials.
21. Iterative Health partnered with software provider Provation to develop Skout, an artificial-intelligence polyp detection solution for use in colonoscopies. 
22. Thiruvengadam Muniraj, MD, was named associate editor of the Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the official journal of the American Society of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy.
23. Nashville-based Vanderbilt University Medical Center's former director of the system's division of gastroenterology, hepatology and nutrition, Raymond Burk, MD, died on May 1 at the age of 80.
24. Denver-based Gastro Care Partners, a provider of gastroenterology services in Colorado and Wyoming, has added David Pyle as its new CEO. 
25. Management services company GI Alliance partnered with the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, becoming its first group member, to advance the practice of gastroenterology. 
26. Exton, Pa.-based U.S. Digestive Health relocated its office to a shopping center in Downingtown, Pa., to join its affiliated endoscopy center, Central Chester County Endoscopy.