August's Hard Look at Letting AI Decide Who Gets Medicare Coverage

An Involuntary Six-Year Program Puts AI in Charge of Some Medicare Approvals

Under a six-year pilot from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model, patients in six involuntarily enrolled states (Washington, Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas) now have AI weighing in on approval for 15 specific procedures. The program aims to curb spending flagged as wasteful but reported delays, glitches and repeated denials that include an 83-year-old denied a pain treatment three times, suggest the execution may be causing more harm than the policy intended.

Link:

• https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/ai-healthcare-problems-medicare