STAT+: Top Democrat demands more detail from Medicare insurers about their use of AI
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is pressing the nation’s largest Medicare Advantage insurers to provide more detail about their use of artificial intelligence tools amid reports that these companies are rapidly increasing their reliance on the technology to help make decisions about patients’ care and coverage.
A copy of a letter sent to UnitedHealth Group, obtained by STAT, asks the company to inventory the AI products it is using for the evaluation of patient care or the payment of medical services. It also asks the company to describe any policies it’s put in place since October 2024 to prevent AI tools from “unduly influencing” the work of human clinicians. Similar letters were sent to executives at Humana and CVS Health, which owns Aetna.
The letter is a follow-up to a majority report by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that found payment denials for care of seriously ill patients increased significantly after UnitedHealth and other large Medicare Advantage insurers began using AI and other predictive tools to help make coverage decisions. Blumenthal is the top Democrat on the subcommittee.
Casey Ross
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