U.S. Democratic Sens. Patty Murray of Washington, Ron Wyden of Oregon and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York introduced a bill that would block the CMS Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model.
The six-year WISeR pilot, set to kick off next year, would add prior authorization requirements to some services under traditional Medicare and test AI initiatives across Arizona, Washington, New Jersey, Texas, Ohio and Oklahoma.
Ms. Gillibrand described the initiative as an “untested, profit-driven AI program.” A Dec. 15 news release highlighted concerns over how humans will review denials and the compensation of AI vendors.
“Make no mistake: This is a backdoor effort to privatize Medicare and cut benefits,” Ms. Murray added.
The senators are not alone: A handful of House Democrats have been pushing back against the model for months.
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