Kaiser Foundation Health Plan has reversed an anesthesia reimbursement change that was implemented in Washington state last month.
Under the temporary changes, which took effect Nov. 1, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington and its subsidiary, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of Washington Options, stopped reimbursing for anesthesia services for claims submitted without identifying who performed the service. In addition, reimbursement for services provided by a certified registered nurse anesthetist were lowered to 85% of the physician fee schedule.
On Dec. 12, a spokesperson for Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente confirmed that it would reverse the policy.
"As one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare providers in the country, Kaiser Permanente’s mission is to provide high-quality, affordable care to our members and the communities we serve," the spokesperson said. "While we will continue our focus on keeping care affordable for our members, we will not implement changes in reimbursement rates for anesthesia services provided by certified registered nurse anesthetists. We have returned to previous reimbursement rate levels, retroactive to November 1, 2024."
The change comes two days after AANA President Jan Setnor, MSN, CRNA, issued a public statement condemning the policy. Ms. Setnor argued that the policy would "devastate healthcare delivery" by impeding patients' access to healthcare and represents the latest example of commercial payers making anesthesia reimbursement changes that conflict with the ACA's federal provider nondiscrimination provision.
"Like other recent policy reversals, the news that Kaiser will walk back their new anesthesia reimbursement policy is appropriate albeit late," Ms. Setnor said in a Dec. 13 statement to Becker's. "This policy – and those similar – never should have been implemented in the first place."
“AANA continues to call on Kaiser and other commercial payors to do the right thing by abandoning these discriminatory policies and instead prioritize and support patient care. We also continue to call on HHS to enforce the provider nondiscrimination provision of the ACA, as commercial payors need to be held accountable to the law," she added.