CHICAGO – In an unprecedented move, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield plans representing Connecticut, New York and Missouri have unilaterally declared it will no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure takes. The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls on Anthem to reverse this proposal immediately.
Man, the timing on this announcement is breathtaking.
It isn’t - it was announced 11/14. As someone who follows healthcare news I really hope to fucking god more people start following it more closely.
Yeah but when and where is the shareholder meeting
Unfortunately, those are going to be zoom calls.
I wonder if there will ever be a participant-run health insurance company.
participant-run health insurance company
How would you envision that working? Like participants get to write their own coverage plans and decide their premiums/fees?
Health insurance was originally participant run - the old form of insurance is just a bunch of folks putting a chunk of money in a pot every so often in case they need it in an emergency. There are still health collectives like that in operation… though most of them are shitty religious people trying to dodge the ACA requirements.
I bet after this a new book was opened up on the large health care insurance orgs in Vegas.
I probably can’t buy in, but certainly would be entertaining.
Who is the CEO?
Anthem Blue Cross appears to be a subsidiary of Elevance Health, whose CEO is Gail Koziara Boudreaux
She currently lives in Indianapolis, IN.
These are fun facts
Indianapolis has one of the highest rates of violent crime in the country.
That’s awful, I bet a lot of those stay unsolved.
I read it’s hard to identify the bicycles criminals use to escape 🚲😂
Another fun fact, she was previously a VP at UnitedHealth!
Asking for a friend
Is this friend at large?
He submitted a claim to be at large but was only approved for “at small”
It’s amazing his claim was approved at all.
Upon further review, our underwriters determined the claim was to have been declined per the contract document outlining your coverage. Please be patient as we send a corrected summary of benefits which will reflect your updated balance. Please remit payment immediately upon receipt. Failure to do so can result in up to and including termination of benefits, your account being transferred to collections, and civil litigation.
Thank you for being a valued heathcare subscriber, where you have hypothetical benefits that you can’t use or else you’ll wish you had died instead of the alternate path where you’ll be working for the rest of your pathetic life to pay off this one relatively minor incident, or else your credit will be ruined and you won’t be able to buy nice things, which hopefully ushers you one step closer to homelessness, where it has become illegal in several municipalities and you will be forcibly relocated against your will and possibly beaten by police and have your remaining possessions destroyed for inconveniencing and annoying our most courageous of law enforcement officers*. Welcome to Costco, I love you.
*I’ve served my county as a firefighter/EMT and have seen this first hand, with my own eyes, more than once, so don’t tell me it doesn’t happen.
Must have missed a step edit or forgotten to submit page 104/103 of the prior auth.
Anthem CEO better watch out
Maybe it is the beginning of eat the rich. I mean something has to be done about it and the governments are not doing shit.
don’t worry, the people who continually vote this unregulated trainwreck into existence want to repeal obamacare, but want to keep their ACA
the term “medicare”, iirc, was first used to describe eisenhower’s dependents medical care act (for military families); and public-funded medical coverage for seniors (social security recipients) was first proposed during his administration (which ultimately passed congress under lbj, along with medicaid).
just take bernie’s medicare for all bill, that i’m sure he has written, rename it “the dwight d. eisenhower memorial health care act” and send it through.
The GOP will just think of something snide to call it, Berniecare at best - CommieCare if they’re feeling spicy.
This is the same group of people who refused to call it the Democratic Party for so long, that “Democrat Party” (emphasis on the rat) has basically been normalised.
Don’t forget “Demoncrat”. Bet they hurt themselves adding that “n”.
Call it reagancare and no GOP politician would dare vote against it.
Get the government out of health care! That’s between me, my doctor, and Medicare.
California : The fuck outta here
What the actual fuck. I mean the amount of extra money they’ve made these people pay. They have probably caused people to lose their jobs.
What if I had Anthem and the doctor told me I’m good to go but the insurance hadn’t cleared me for release, and I left? They can’t keep me there against my will. Would they use this to justify denying coverage?
Anything and everything will be used to deny coverage.
In most of these cases it’s the delay in approval for some kind of continued care (nursing facility, home nurse visits etc.) which the patient needs that’s delaying the hospital discharge. I think if you’re good to walk out, you probably can. Even if the doctor hasn’t cleared it, there’s a form you can sign that basically says you’re taking your legal right to leave.
Yeah I’ve left against medical advice a couple times. I was just curious about the insurance ramifications. Thanks for the info.
Hell yeah I’m posting this hoping more eyes stop to read your comment if they see a reply. Cuz fuck what ins is doing
Did they see a healthcare CEO dead on the street and thought “this is the right moment to fuck with people”?
Who’s their CEO again?
Sometimes we need heroes.
The guillotine…
The ballot or the bullet maybe
From 2010 on especially, through gerrymandered redistricting, capturing state houses, voter suppression, education cuts and the evergreen tyranny of the electoral college, they’ve poisoned the ballot - that’s no longer a viable tool. There’s only one care option left that’s covered on your insurance plan…
i truly loved living in the united states but damn it seems really easy to go broke simply by getting sick
Medical bills account for 40% of bankruptcies in the US.
Not for doctors lol
Yes for doctors. Because doctors are not the ones getting rich, the medical groups that employ them are the ones getting rich. Doctors have massive medical school debt and they have to deal with shitty insurance just like the rest of us.
My wife’s cousin is a doctor. He was able to afford to buy a small house- before the housing bubble- and drives a decent, but not luxury, car. Considering he literally saves lives, that’s the least he should be able to afford to do.
That’s why I fucking left. Good health is more important - it’s literally the most important thing.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists calls on Anthem to reverse this proposal immediately.
Anthem cackles and croaks, “You have no power here!”
And there’s no Gandalf present.
Does the guy waiting in ambush with a glock count as Aragorn?
Legolas might be a better analogy.
Nah, I’d say Faramir
Denethor: Boromir would have used a claymore
Just so long as he is not a legless Legolas. I don’t think they would cover that either.
does anthem execs ‘eat their own dog food’? they could easily be victim of their own policy: ‘sorry about you wakin’ up in the middle of your double bypass, your insurance for the sleep doc ran out’
Seems like they are encouraging Mal practices suits against doctors that rushed surgeries. Wonder if there a class action suit here or something.
The won’t cut the anesthesia, they will just send the patient a bill for thousands of dollars
Guess I need to hire a hypnotist. https://youtu.be/QMXbuEuNNk4?5BR_L-l-HzMIUJMF
It will cut the bill in half probably…
This news is from November 14th. OP trying to make recent events into a new trend perhaps?
I don’t know whether to be appalled or impressed. Either way it’s quite clever.
I doubt it’s anything so deliberate. This story has been going viral on Bluesky as well.
It seems it slipped through the cracks at the time, but recent events have led people to reexamine it.
Americans in 2025 trying to get more anesthesia:
Relevant Ontario ad: our lives are not for profit
