Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has rescinded plans for a cap on patient anesthesia starting in February, amid backlash and what it calls “widespread misinformation.”
Anthem said in a prepared statement that “We have decided to not proceed with this policy change. 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 proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines.”
Dr. Jonathan Gal of the American Society of Anesthesiologists Economics Committee Chair called the proposal a “cash grab.”
“They essentially said if it's over this arbitrary time limit, that they said they're going to deny the claim. And it came across quite blatantly as a money grab,” he said “Anthem wants to try and pad their annual $6 billion profits while passing costs on to patients and their physicians. It's just incomprehensible how a health insurance company can so blatantly continue to prioritize their profits over safe patient care.”
Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield and Excellus BCBS are the two largest BCBS providers in Western New York and the Southern Tier, and are separate companies from Anthem.
Highmark and Excellus both say they have no policies capping anesthesia coverage.
Gal said he had additional concerns that the change could cause confusion, with patients who didn’t have Anthem still thinking they were affected.
