Less than a day after they announced a cap on anesthesia coverage in states like New York, Connecticut, and Missouri, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield reversed this unpopular move.

This comes in the wake of the assassination of Brian Thompson, an executive at UnitedHealthcare, the nation’s largest private insurance provider, in New York City.

UnitedHealthcare was mired in several investigations, lawsuits, and protests surrounding reports about allegedly denying claims.

Thompson was shot outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan as he was making his way to an investor conference.

Anthem, one of the largest insurers in the US, announced on Wednesday that they would no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure exceeds a certain time limit.

Starting in February, they said they would use a metric system called Physician Work Time values from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “target the number of minutes reported for anesthesia services.”

In a note provided to New York providers earlier this week, they stated, “Claims submitted with reported time above the established number of minutes will only pay up to the CMS established amount.”

The American Society of Anesthesiologists said the move would take effect in New York, Connecticut, and Missouri in February, followed by Colorado in March.

This led to a lot of criticism from doctors and other medical professionals, patients as well as politicians.

Netizens worried about doctors having to rush through procedures.

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The ASA issued a statement in mid-November where they urged Anthem to reverse this “cynical money grab” move instantly.

“This egregious policy breaks the trust between Anthem and its policyholders who expect their health insurer to pay physicians for the entirety of the care they need,” said ASA president Dr. Donald Arnold.

Payments for anesthesia services are based on several factors, the ASA noted, “including the exact amount of time for anesthesiologists to deliver care preoperatively, during the operation, and when transitioning the patient to the recovery unit afterwards.”

Using this new policy, Anthem was aiming to “arbitrarily pre-determine the time allowed for anesthesia care during a surgery or procedure,” they claimed. If the time limit went beyond Anthem’s limit, they would not pay for anesthesia care which would cause patients to rake up hundreds and thousands of dollars in bills.

“This is just the latest in a long line of appalling behavior by commercial health insurers looking to drive their profits up at the expense of patients and physicians providing essential care,” Arnold said in the statement.

Elected officials expressed concerns over the policy.

On Thursday afternoon, Connecticut Comptroller Sean Scanlon tweeted that they had successfully intervened and managed to reverse Anthem’s decision.

“After hearing from people across the state about this concerning policy, my office reached out to Anthem, and I’m pleased to share this policy will no longer be going into effect here in Connecticut,” he said.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, who had expressed extreme disdain towards Anthem’s policy on Wednesday, also announced on Thursday that they have managed to do away with the cap.

“We pushed Anthem to reverse course on their decision to strip anesthesia coverage away from New Yorkers and today they will be announcing a full reversal of this misguided policy. Don’t mess with the health and well-being of New Yorkers — not on my watch,” she said in an X post.

According to ASA, Elevance Health, the corporate name for Anthem, reported a 24.12% increase in their net income to $2.3 billion.