Paying for Propofol
Aetna Halting Coverage for Anesthesia Monitoring for GI Scopes
Aetna, the third-largest U.S. health insurer, will no longer pay for monitored anesthesia care for routine colonoscopies as of April 1. MAC typically adds $300 to $1,500 to the cost of a screening, says Aetna spokeswoman Susan Millerick. In a letter sent to physicians last month, Aetna says that "conscious sedation is a safe and well-tolerated choice for most patients undergoing GI endoscopy. There is no generally accepted evidence demonstrating that average-risk patients require MAC for routine GI endoscopy. Therefore, we will cover MAC only for patients undergoing GI endoscopy with sedation-related risk factors."