Blue Cross Blue Shield's Corporate 'About Us' Page Vanishes From Website

A web page listing the corporate leadership team behind Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), one of America's biggest health insurers, has disappeared from the company's website.

The disappearance of the page listing the provider's 25 highest-ranking employees was highlighted in a post shared to the r/antiwork subreddit on Reddit by the user u/wendysdrivethru.

The web page appeared to have vanished after the fatal shooting of CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in New York in what police described as a "premeditated, preplanned targeted attack."

Newsweek has reached out to Anthem BCBS via email for comment.

A screenshot shared as part of the Reddit post revealed how a 404 Error page appeared when they attempted to access the "leadership" section of the page. "Guess they don't want us to see who's on their board? Can't imagine why," a caption accompanying the post reads.

Subsequent attempts to access the page by Newsweek confirmed the issue, while a search using the Wayback Machine internet archive also confirmed the page's previous existence.

The page previously listed details for upper management at Anthem BCBS, including the President and CEO, the Executive Vice President and CFO, the Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel.

The sudden disappearance of the page sparked mass speculation on Reddit, with the post highlighting the change earning over 34,000 upvotes and generating 1,600 comments.

It comes at the end of a week in which Anthem BCBS abruptly reversed a recent decision to no longer reimburse anesthesia services for the complete duration of certain surgical procedures. Under the plans Anthem BCBS announced it would "no longer pay for anesthesia care if the surgery or procedure goes beyond an arbitrary time limit, regardless of how long the surgical procedure takes."

The decision was set to cover patients with plans in Connecticut, New York and Missouri and would have seen the insurer introduce a partial coverage mode based on "physician work time values" from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. These plans drew strong criticism from the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), with the head of the ASA branding it "appalling" and "egregious" while warning it could also jeopardize patient safety and increase the financial strain on both patients and providers.

In a statement issued on Thursday announcing the reversal, Anthem BCBS attributed the decision to what it described as "significant widespread misinformation" regarding the policy.

"To be clear, it never was and never will be the policy of Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield to not pay for medically necessary anesthesia services," the company said. "The proposed update to the policy was only designed to clarify the appropriateness of anesthesia consistent with well-established clinical guidelines."

UnitedHealthcare boss Thompson, 50, was on his way to speak at the group's investor conference at the Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning when he was shot and killed.

A manhunt is underway after the suspect fled the scene, with police offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to an arrest. Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told reporters: "The motive for this murder is currently unknown, but based on the evidence we have so far, it does appear the victim was specifically targeted. But at this point, we do not know why."