{"id":15794,"date":"2024-12-05T21:59:37","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T21:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=15794"},"modified":"2024-12-05T21:59:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T21:59:37","slug":"anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-decides-not-to-proceed-with-new-anesthesia-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=15794","title":{"rendered":"Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield decides not to proceed with new anesthesia policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; Anthem Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield) has reversed course on a new policy of capping anesthesia coverage after a certain time limit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A company representative told KCTV5 on Thursday afternoon that it has decided not to proceed with the plan.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The\u00a0<a title=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/2024\/12\/04\/anthem-insurance-missouri-cap-anesthesia-coverage-after-certain-time-limits\/\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kctv5.com\/2024\/12\/04\/anthem-insurance-missouri-cap-anesthesia-coverage-after-certain-time-limits\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\">health insurance giant initially had announced<\/a>\u00a0that the move would take effect on Feb. 1, 2025.\u00a0<a title=\"https:\/\/providernews.anthem.com\/connecticut\/articles\/anesthesia-billed-time-units-commercial-22477\" href=\"https:\/\/providernews.anthem.com\/connecticut\/articles\/anesthesia-billed-time-units-commercial-22477\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"\">Anthem stated<\/a>\u00a0that it would change how it evaluates billed time on professional claims for anesthesia services.<\/p>\n<div class=\"arc-ad | d-flex flex-column ad-type-flex-leaderboard ad-article-inline include-disclaimer justify-content-center text-center\">\n<div class=\"arc-ad-wrapper |\">\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">After the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.asahq.org\/about-asa\/newsroom\/news-releases\/2024\/11\/anthem-blue-cross-blue-shield-will-not-pay-complete-duration-of-anesthesia-for-surgical-procedures\" target=\"_self\">American Society of Anesthesiologists<\/a>\u00a0(ASA) spoke out against the policy and significant public backlash, Anthem pulled back. The company cited \u201cwidespread misinformation\u201d as its reasoning.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote | article-pullquote\">\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote | font-italic bg-light p-4 border-left\">\n<p class=\"mb-2\">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. 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.<\/p>\n<footer class=\"blockquote-footer\"><cite class=\"article-citation\">Emily Snooks, public relations director (Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri)<\/cite><\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The exclusions for the change would have been patients under the age of 22 and maternity-related care. The policy had been set to go into effect for Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans representing Connecticut, New York and Missouri, according to ASA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Missouri State Rep. John Patterson (R-Lee\u2019s Summit) applauded Anthem\u2019s decision on Thursday afternoon:<\/p>\n<aside class=\"pullquote | article-pullquote\">\n<blockquote class=\"blockquote | font-italic bg-light p-4 border-left\">\n<p class=\"mb-2\">I\u2019m glad to see that Anthem listened to the voices of their patients and decided against going forward with this ill-advised plan in Missouri.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-2\">The correct amount of time for an operation will always be the time it takes to do it right and to do it safely. Placing arbitrary time limits on surgeries would have been detrimental to patient care.<\/p>\n<footer class=\"blockquote-footer\"><cite class=\"article-citation\">Missouri State Representative Jon Patterson, Majority Floor Leader<\/cite><\/footer>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><i>Editor\u2019s Note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.<\/i><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\"><i>Copyright 2024 KCTV. All rights reserved.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) &#8211; Anthem Insurance (Blue Cross Blue Shield) has reversed course on a new policy of capping anesthesia coverage after a certain time limit. A &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15794"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15796,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15794\/revisions\/15796"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}