GI practices are scaling up as payment pressure mounts. Medicare physician payments for colonoscopies and EGDs fell more than 22% in inflation-adjusted terms from 2018 to 2023, according to a 2024 American Journal of Gastroenterology report. Meanwhile, 76% of gastroenterologists said reduced payer reimbursement is hurting their practices, according to a December Medscape report.
The leaders below run some of the largest GI platforms, lead independent groups and steer national societies.
Note: This list is not an endorsement of included individuals or organizations and is not a ranking.
GI group executives
- James Weber, MD. Founder and CEO of Dallas-based GI Alliance. He opened Texas Digestive Disease Consultants in 1995 and launched GI Alliance in 2018. The group has drawn a $785 million investment from Apollo Global Management and a $2.8 billion majority stake from Cardinal Health.
- Dinesh Madhok, MD. CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Borland Groover. He was named as part of a leadership restructuring that also added a new CFO, COO and CHRO. The group sees more than 150,000 patients and performs more than 50,000 colonoscopies a year. It is building the Emerald Coast Endoscopy Center in Santa Rosa Beach, Fla., which is slated to open in summer 2027.
- Geogy Vennikandam, MD. COO of Libertyville, Ill.-based GI Partners of Illinois, which is in active talks with two GI groups as part of an acquisition strategy. He is adding nutrition, precision medicine and remote monitoring service lines to “insulate us from fee-for-service volatility,” he told Becker’s.
- Michael Warne. CEO of Camillus, N.Y.-based Associated Gastroenterologists of Central New York. “With flat reimbursement and rising costs across the board, it’s getting harder to make the numbers work,” he told Becker’s in January.
- Pradnya Mitroo, MD. President of Fresno (Calif.) Digestive Health. She said her group is shifting to renegotiate payer contracts and plans to lean on cost and outcomes data: “For the future, data-driven negotiation will be very important,” she told Becker’s.
- Joseph Cassara, MD. Board president of Denver-based Gastroenterology of the Rockies and an advanced therapeutic endoscopist. He founded a national center of excellence focused on clinician-patient communication.
- Surinder Devgun, MD. Managing partner of Rochester (N.Y.) Gastroenterology Associates. He sees consolidation as the likely path for independent practices: “Joining a larger entity is the most likely outcome in order to remain in clinical practice,” he told Becker’s.
Society and academic leaders
- Costas Kefalas, MD. President of the American College of Gastroenterology for 2026-27 and president of Akron (Ohio) Digestive Health, a private practice. He joined the ACG in 2000 and became a trustee in 2019, according to Becker’s.
- Jennifer Christie, MD. President of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and division head of gastroenterology and hepatology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Her division spans general GI, interventional endoscopy, transplant hepatology and inflammatory bowel disease.
- Aasma Shaukat, MD. Gastroenterologist and outcomes researcher at NYU Langone Health in New York City. She is recognized for work on colorectal cancer screening quality, advanced polyp removal and AI to improve colonoscopy accuracy.
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