‘No regulation’: Trump officials bypass the public to boost invisible code

Key Points:

• Over the past year, a select group of tech companies, financiers, and former Trump administration officials have collaborated privately via a Slack workspace to influence federal policy on AI-powered health apps, aiming to integrate these tools into healthcare with minimal regulation.
• The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has promoted these AI health apps, including through a Medicare App Library that features commercial products from major tech firms, and has suggested these apps could be reimbursed similarly to medical professionals.
• The Slack workspace, which includes industry leaders but few patient or medical representatives, operates without public transparency and resembles a federal advisory committee, raising legal and ethical concerns about industry influence over government healthcare policy.
• Tech companies have lobbied for broad access to patients’ medical records through the national TEFCA network, advocating for apps to be treated like patients themselves in accessing sensitive data, despite concerns about privacy, security, and lack of oversight.
• Medical professionals express caution about the readiness and reliability of AI health tools, warning of potential risks to patients, while government officials emphasize the benefits of increased digital access to medical records, often without formal regulation or rulemaking.