Groups sue Colorado to halt decision on rural hospital anesthesia

Groups representing anesthesiologists and doctors have sued to block a state policy change allowing advanced-practice nurses to administer anesthesia without a physician's supervision in rural hospitals.

The Colorado Society of Anesthesiologists and the Colorado Medical Society filed the suit in Denver District Court on Tuesday, one day after Gov. Bill Ritter announced his decision to opt out of the federal Medicare rule.

"I have concluded it is in the interests of those relying on critical-access hospitals and the rural residents of Colorado to opt out of this requirement," Ritter said in a letter to Donald Berwick, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.