AI, tech leaders are lobbying Trump health officials in a government-run chat room

Key Points:

• Over the past year, a group of elite tech and Trump administration officials have quietly collaborated to promote AI-powered health apps, aiming to integrate these tools into healthcare and enable government reimbursement similar to medical professionals.
• Federal health agencies, including the FDA and CMS, engaged tech companies like Microsoft, Apple, and Google in a private Slack workspace and closed-door meetings to shape AI healthcare policy without public transparency or formal advisory committee procedures.
• CMS officials have promoted a Medicare App Library featuring mostly early-stage AI health apps, positioning it as a trusted platform for millions of seniors and disabled Americans, while promising to support these companies as a "sales engine" for their products.
• The campaign advocates for broad patient data access by health apps via the national TEFCA network, treating apps as equivalent to patients in accessing sensitive medical records, raising concerns about privacy, security, and regulatory oversight.
• Medical professionals express caution about the readiness and safety of these AI tools, noting insufficient data on their accuracy and liability issues, while government officials emphasize voluntary industry collaboration without formal regulation or rulemaking.