ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WROC) — Those who use Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance will likely soon have to pay out of pocket for anesthesia services, should their surgeries fall outside a specific time limit. This applies to patients in New York State, Missouri and Connecticut.
Officials with BCBS announced that this would begin with claims processed on or after Feb. 1, 2025. According to BCBS, “We will utilize the CMS Physician Work Time values to target the number of minutes reported for anesthesia services.” Any surgery that goes beyond the set limit, will no longer be covered.
There are some exemptions to this. Those include patients under the age of 22 and patients in need of maternity-related care.
News 8 reached out to Anthem BCBS and Excellus BCBS to learn more. Officials said to expect more details on Thursday.
Wednesday night in response to this news, Governor Kathy Hochul wrote via X (formerly Twitter), “Outrageous. I’m going to make sure New Yorkers are protected.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
