'Their Goal Is to Destroy Medicare': GOP Senators Block Bid to Stop AI Care Denials

[sop]

"In what critics called a troubling sign of where US healthcare policy is headed, Senate Republicans on Thursday torpedoed an effort by their Democratic colleagues to block a Trump administration pilot program under which private companies will use artificial intelligence to review—and possibly deny—healthcare to patients seeking certain Medicare services."

"Senators voted 50-46 along party lines against a Congressional Review Act resolution introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and supported by 20 Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). The resolution was aimed at overturning the Trump administration’s final rule establishing the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) so-called Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model."

“ kYesterday, I voted to block [President Donald] Trump’s plan to let AI decide whether Medicare will approve or deny your medical care. Every Senate Republican supported Trump’s scheme,' Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said Friday on social media. 'Doctors should be deciding what care seniors need—not a computer program.' "

"The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor union federation, said on X: 'No senior should have to wait weeks to see a doctor because a flawed AI system won’t authorize it. The Trump [administration’s] WISeR program is delaying treatment for Medicare patients and putting tech companies’ interests first. Congress must end it.' "

Continued at link:

https://www.commondreams.org/news/medicare-ai-denials-senate