WASHINGTON, July 16 -- Sen. Maria Cantwell issued the following press release:
Today, legislation that could have halted an A.I. pilot program that has both delayed and denied doctor-prescribed treatments for Medicare patients in Washington failed after Republicans voted to continue to block seniors' access to health care.
At the start of the year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) model across six states. In those states -- Arizona, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Ohio, Texas, and Washington - Medicare patients are subject to prior authorization requirements for 13 types of procedures or treatments. This means that a claim needs to run through an opaque A.I.-driven s...