Insurance Companies Trying To Curb Anesthesiologist Participation in Colonoscopies
Posted by Clark Venable on 12/27/2005
Propofol sedation for colonoscopies is in the news today.
Colonoscopy anesthesia popular but pricey (UPI):I've given lots of propofol anesthetics for colonoscopies. Patients go off to sleep before they start, wake up when it's over and ask 'when are we going to start?' The recovery is faster and cleaner than traditional opiate/benzodiazepine sedation, allowing a center to increase the number of patients it can perform an exam on in a day.
A similar report on CNN/Money goes as far as to call the insurance company involved (Wellpoint) and ask if their executives will forego propofol. Answer?
I have to wonder, wouldn't the same logic apply here as applies to providing epidurals for labor? Are labor epidurals medically necessary? The American College of Gynecology, together with the American Society of Anesthesiologists has opined that "there is no other circumstance where it is considered acceptable for a person to experience untreated severe pain that is amenable to safe intervention." Ask a nurse that works with colonoscopy patients how she'd like hers done. I'll bet I know the answer.
It's not just insurance companies that are clamping down on anesthetists administering propofol to colonoscopy patients. Apparently, a group representing the gastroenterologists have asked for propofol labeling to be changed by the FDA to allow them to administer it (see safepropofol.org for more info). This same group is against Wellpoint's policy change as outlined here.
[Via Yahoo Search: anesthesia]
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