Here are five anesthesia-related stories that Becker's has covered since Nov. 14:
1. U.S. Anesthesia Partners filed to dismiss a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission accusing the provider of forming a monopoly in Texas. In September, the Federal Trade Commission sued the company and its creator, private equity firm Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe, alleging the two groups executed a multiyear anticompetitive scheme to consolidate anesthesiology practices in Texas.
2. Portland, Ore.-based Providence Portland Medical Center and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center will likely restrict the number of surgeries they perform in late November and December this year due to a shortage of anesthesiologists.
3. As the shortage of anesthesiologists and certified registered nurse anesthesiologists continues to grow, the average cost of hiring an anesthesiologist has risen 20% to 40% since 2022. Here are three ways to address the anesthesia shortage.
4. Blue Cross Blue Shield Massachusetts will no longer cover the use of monitored anesthesia for certain gastrointestinal patients undergoing endoscopic, bronchoscopic or interventional pain procedures. It will no longer consider the use of monitored anesthesia "medically necessary" for these procedures unless a patient receives documentation by the operating physician that specific risk factors or significant medical conditions are present.
5. Anesthesiologist Anna Gabrielian, MD, a former employee of Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins Hospital, and her spouse, Jamie Lee Henry, MD, who are accused of sharing medical records with Russia, are set for retrial Nov. 27. The two physicians, who pleaded not guilty in May, are accused of being involved in a conspiracy wherein they gave confidential medical records to an FBI agent posing as a Russian representative.