{"slug": "stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new", "title": "STAT+: Medicare’s AI prior authorization pilot was rushed and full of problems, new documents reveal", "summary": "Medicare's AI-driven prior authorization pilot, the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) model, launched in January in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington and will run until 2031, but more than 1,000 pages of documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit show the rollout was hasty and error-ridden. The documents reveal that one WISeR vendor warned the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that expecting a working product by the agency's desired launch date was unrealistic. The program requires providers to obtain approval before delivering certain procedures and products, including skin substitutes and epidural injections for pain management.", "body_md": "The rollout of a Medicare program that uses artificial intelligence to approve or deny care was hasty and error-ridden, according to more than a thousand pages of recently released documents and data.\n\nThe pilot program, called the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model, or WISeR, launched in January and requires health care providers to seek approvals before they can provide certain procedures and products, like skin substitutes and epidural injections for pain management. The experiment operates in New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, and Washington and will run until 2031.\n\nAmong other issues, the [documents](https://www.eff.org/cases/eff-v-cms) obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation [through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit](https://www.eff.org/press/releases/eff-sues-answers-about-medicares-ai-experiment) show that one WISeR vendor warned the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that it was unrealistic to expect a working product by the time the federal agency wanted to launch the program. \n\n## This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers\n\n### Unlock this article — and get additional analysis of the technologies disrupting health care — by subscribing to STAT+.\n\nAlready have an account? [Log in](https://www.statnews.com/login/)\n\n[View All Plans](https://www.statnews.com/stat-plus/)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new", "canonical_source": "https://www.statnews.com/2026/09/15/medicare-wiser-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-rushed-launch-delayed-care/?utm_campaign=rss", "published_at": "2026-09-15 08:30:00+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-15 08:44:08.481739+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services", "Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model", "Electronic Frontier Foundation", "Medicare", "New Jersey", "Ohio", "Oklahoma", "Texas"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/stat-medicares-ai-prior-authorization-pilot-was-rushed-and-full-of-problems-new.jsonld"}}