Anthem BCBS is backtracking on its plan to limit anesthesia reimbursement after public backlash

Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (ELV-1.38%) (BCBS) is withdrawing from a plan that placed a cap on the duration of anesthesia during medical procedures.

The change announced Thursday comes after the insurer faced opposition to the plan from a professional group as well as intense backlash on social media.

“There has been significant widespread misinformation regarding an update to our anesthesia policy. For this reason, we have decided not to move forward with this policy change,” a spokesperson told Quartz in an email statement. “To be clear, it has never been and will never be Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s policy not to pay for medically necessary anesthesia services. The proposed update to the guideline only served to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with established clinical guidelines.”

Antehem BCBS announced last month that the now-repealed policy would take effect in Connecticut, New York and Missouri starting February 2025. The change drew immediate disapproval from the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

“With this new policy, Anthem will arbitrarily predetermine the time allowed for anesthesia care during a surgery or procedure,” the industry association said in a statement opinion at the time. “If an anesthesiologist submits a bill where the actual treatment time is longer than the time specified by Anthem, Anthem will deny payment for the anesthesiologist’s care.”

Until then, the rule change had received little attention from the general public Brian Thompson, CEO of UnitedHealth was fatally shot in New York City on Wednesday, sparking public outrage Control of health insurers.

Several media outlets reported Thursday that the words could be found in the bullet casings from the shooting “deny”, “defend” and “reject” written on it. Some have speculated that these words refer to terms Industry critics use it to describe the tactics insurers use to deny claims.

Several Posts The rule was brought to attention on social media.

On Thursday evening, the governor of New York said Kathy Hochul and Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon posted on social media site X that they were able to get Anthem to reverse their policies.

“We pushed Anthem to do an about-face on their decision to strip New Yorkers of anesthesia coverage, and today they will announce a complete reversal of this misguided policy,” Hochul wrote in the post.