1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to cancel the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) pilot program announced by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in June. This program threatens to insert artificial intelligence between Medicare patients and their doctors, creating dangerous barriers to necessary medical care. Starting in January 2026, the WISeR model will use AI to determine Medicare coverage eligibility for prescribed medical procedures in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, and Washington. Original Medicare enrollees in these states will have no ability to opt out of this program. This means seniors and people with disabilities who have earned their Medicare benefits will be subject to algorithmic decision-making about their healthcare without their consent. The structure of this program creates a fundamental conflict of interest. AI companies participating in WISeR will receive a share of the savings generated from rejected claims. This payment model directly incentivizes denying coverage rather than ensuring patients receive the care their doctors prescribe. We have already seen the devastating consequences of prior authorization requirements in private insurance, where the American Medical Association has documented significant delays and denials of necessary medical care. Medicare has historically provided more reliable coverage than private insurance precisely because it does not place profit-driven obstacles between patients and treatment. The WISeR program threatens to erode this critical protection by importing the worst practices of private insurance into traditional Medicare. I ask you to publicly oppose the WISeR pilot program and work with your colleagues to ensure CMS cancels this initiative before its January 2026 implementation date. Medicare beneficiaries deserve healthcare decisions made by their doctors based on medical necessity, not by algorithms designed to maximize savings for AI companies. Our seniors have earned better than this.