A major health insurer has nixed a planned policy shift regarding a cap it placed on anesthesia coverage after intense public backlash against the plan. NPR reports on the 180 by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, which had initially announced it would no longer pay for coverage for anesthesia use during surgery if the procedure surpassed a certain time limit. "There has been significant widespread misinformation about an update to our anesthesia policy. As a result, we have decided to not proceed with this policy change," the insurer said in a Thursday statement.
"To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services," the company added. "The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines." The insurer had argued that the time limit—which had reportedly been set to take effect next year in New York, Connecticut, and Missouri, and perhaps other states—would help prevent overbilling. Critics of the plan, however, were appalled at the idea, with the American Society of Anesthesiologists calling it a "cynical money grab" that would make consumers fork over hundreds or thousands of dollars out of pocket and endanger their safety during surgery.
"It's incomprehensible how a health insurance company could so blatantly continue to prioritize their profits over safe patient care," the ASA's Dr. Jonathan Gal told the AP. The reversal came the same week that UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was gunned down in the streets of Manhattan, with both news events spurring a pushback on social media against the health insurance industry. "When patients become financially responsible because a health plan cuts how much they pay providers, that's what breeds all this anger," Marianne Udow-Phillips, who teaches insurance classes at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, tells Axios.
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Local leaders are now expressing relief that public pressure had caused Anthem to rethink its anesthesia cap. "I'm pleased to share this policy will no longer be going into effect here in Connecticut," that state's comptroller, Sean Scanlon, tweeted on Thursday. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, meanwhile, noted in a Thursday statement: "We pushed Anthem to reverse course and today they will be announcing a full reversal of this misguided policy. Don't mess with the health and well-being of New Yorkers—not on my watch." (More Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield stories.)
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