Stop Prior Authorizations In Traditional Medicare

You are my representative and I want you to know what is going on at the HHS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. They are going to implement a program to use prior authorizations to limit medical care to America’s seniors. It is called WISeR — short for “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction” — and it will test the use of an AI algorithm in making prior authorization decisions for some Medicare services. It will negatively affect Traditional Medicare patients, and the doctors and hospitals who care for them, in Arizona, Ohio, Oklahoma, New Jersey, Texas, and Washington, starting Jan. 1 and running through 2031. Look, prior authorizations stand between you and your doctor. They delay and deny care so that insurer can hold on to the money at the expense of the patient. Letting people stay ill or die to save money is not what health insurance is supposed to do. Insurers are supposed to pay the doctor to heal the patient. Seniors paid into this system for Traditional Medicare their entire lives, and they continue to pay for Part B doctor services every month from their Social Security. Now they will be denied care that their doctor determines they need so the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services can save money. If they were interested in saving money we would have Universal Healthcare which can save the country $750 billion every year by eliminating wasteful overhead and negotiating fair drug prices for everyone. Until we get there here is what I want you to do. I want you to take a look at the spending recommendations of Representative Frankel from Florida. Her bipartisan supported recommendation to the House HHS appropriations Bill precludes HHS from implementing the WISer Program anywhere in the United States. I want you to make sure that any HHS funding going forward precludes HHS from implementing prior authorizations in Traditional Medicare. Thank you.” Reference: https://appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/committee-approves-fy26-labor-health-and-human-services-education-and-related