The Justice Department has announced its 2026 National Health Care Fraud Takedown, charging 455 defendants, including 90 physicians and other licensed medical professionals, in schemes involving more than $6.5 billion in false claims, the department said in a June 23…
Patsy Newitt
The root of disappearing independent practices is not just reimbursement or referral diversion, according to Ahmed Hasan, MD, president of Lehigh (Pa.) Gastroenterology Associates — it starts in medical school. “When you’re in medical school, they don’t teach doctors how…
The headline number in most physician compensation reports is total cash compensation, which is base salary plus bonuses plus profit-sharing, but that figure doesn’t show how much depends on productivity metrics, patient satisfaction scores or quality measures outside their control. …
The federal agency that oversees Medicare is moving to place ASCs inside the same episode-based payment framework that has governed hospital joint replacement care since 2016, and ASC operators have roughly 18 months to figure out what that means for…
Marit Health, an AI-powered platform and clinician community, has reached 100,000 users 15 months after launching, making it one of the fastest-growing platforms in medicine, according to a June 23 news release. The San Francisco-based platform, launched in March 2025…
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Private equity’s footprint in physician practices has expanded sharply over the past decade, but the debate over its consequences has often generated more heat than clarity. A pair of recent analyses — a Commonwealth Fund feature published in April and…
Ahmed Hasan, MD, has been practicing gastroenterology independently in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley for 30 years. Six independent GI groups with their own ASCs used to operate alongside him in the Greater Lehigh Valley, a total of roughly 60 gastroenterologists. Today,…
CMS finalized a rule June 12 that significantly reshapes how accrediting organizations operate, and the new requirements signal more rigorous, standardized and independent surveys ahead. The rule, titled “Strengthening Oversight of Accrediting Organizations and Preventing AO Conflicts of Interest,” targets…
In 2024, seven major Stark law indictments contributed to a record-breaking 979 qui tam lawsuits, with False Claims Act settlements and judgments totaling $2.92 billion by the federal government’s fiscal year-end. The enforcement wave was built across five years of…
ASC consolidation is not slowing because independent operators are getting stronger. It’s slowing because the financial math that made acquisitions irresistible no longer works. The roll-up era produced a significant national footprint. Dallas-based United Surgical Partners International, Brentwood, Tenn.-based Surgery…