Overview

• At a Sept. 3 hearing, members of the House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee questioned current uses of AI in healthcare and said stronger oversight is needed.
• CMS’s July pilot to use contracted AI for prior authorization in traditional Medicare drew warnings that human reviewers could be primed to accept denials and that vendors may benefit financially from more denials, prompting Rep. Greg Landsman to call for a shutdown of the program.
• The American Psychological Association said it has asked the FTC and CPSC to investigate mental-health chatbots and urged Congress to prohibit misrepresenting AI as licensed clinicians while requiring transparency and human oversight.
• Stanford’s Michelle Mello and Viz.ai’s Andrew Ibrahim pressed for updating FDA authorities to reflect fast-evolving AI tools and for making real-world performance monitoring a condition of Medicare funding.
• Lawmakers highlighted AI’s potential for care coordination, diagnosis and cost reductions but offered few concrete proposals, with Rep. John Joyce saying he plans to introduce the Health Tech Investment Act.