Anesthesia professionals and their practices have faced a range of financial and operational challenges over the last several years as reimbursements continue to fall below the cost of supplies and labor and the demand for anesthesia continues to rise.
There have also been several clinical, technological and legislative developments that are expanding growth opportunities for anesthesia practices and enhancing the way they deliver care.
Here are five things looking up for anesthesia and pain medicine practices:
1. Akron (Ohio) Children’s Hospital reduced waste anesthesia gas emissions by nearly 500 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2025 through a multi-year effort to improve sustainability in its anesthesiology department. The hospital joins a growing list of institutions who are successfully cutting desflurane out of their anesthesia practice.
2. Team-based approaches to perioperative opioid management may go a long way towards cutting down on opioid use for surgical patients, a study published in January in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons found. Overall, median prescription size decreased by 67%, and 24,212 pills were saved as a result of the program. A reduction in median discharge of opioid prescription was achieved in 14 out of 15 procedures, and the median postintervention prescription quantity was zero for 10 out of 15 procedures. After risk adjustment, patients who enrolled in the program post-intervention received eight fewer oxycodone pills than their counterparts.
3. Lawmakers in Michigan recently heard testimony on a bill that would establish licensure for anesthesiologist assistants in the state. Supporters of the bill framed it as a tool for strengthening access to anesthesia services while maintaining physician oversight and patient safety. The bill would create a formal pathway for licensure and define scope-of-practice parameters. If passed, Michigan would become the 24th state to give practice authority to CAAs, something many have opted for to mitigate the ongoing anesthesia workforce shortage.
4. Payers’ implementation of time limits on anesthesia reimbursement has sparked controversy over the last several years, beginning in late 2024 when Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield proposed a policy that would impose time limits on anesthesia reimbursement in Missouri, New York and Connecticut. Since then, several states have pushed back on these policies with legislation that would outlaw the time limits as a modifier for anesthesia reimbursements.
Washington state lawmakers reintroduced a bill that would prohibit insurers from denying coverage or capping reimbursement based on time limits in January. Maryland and Illinois also passed bans on anesthesia time limits in the last 18 months.
5. AI is being increasingly integrated into anesthesia care for everything from real-time OR decision support to predictive pre-op risk modeling and AI-assisted ultrasound for regional blocks and vascular access. Leaders have told Becker’s they view the technology as a tool to improve precision, consistency and efficiency, particularly amid workforce shortages and reimbursement pressure. Rather than replacing clinicians, AI is being deployed to streamline monitoring, documentation and workflow, allowing anesthesia teams to focus on higher-acuity decision-making and patient care.
