Senate and House Democrats introduced resolutions Wednesday to overturn a Medicare pilot that uses artificial intelligence to approve or deny care. The technology experiment has led to allegations of delayed care for seniors in at least one of the six states it is currently being implemented.
The newest effort to force a vote to stop the experiment follows a Government Accountability Office ruling from last week. The GAO determined that the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction program (WISeR) is subject to Congressional approval and should have been submitted to Congress before going into effect in January.
“Americans are sick and tired of abusive prior authorization tactics putting needed health care out of reach,” Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a press release. “The last thing seniors need is even more AI denying the care they need.”
Wyden sponsored the resolution to invoke the Congressional Review Act along with senators Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). The coalition of 20 Senate Democrats behind the resolution shows a broadening resistance to the program beyond the six states it has been implemented in: Arizona, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, and Washington.
