Congress to get lesson on AI in health care

Nov 29, 2023

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By Chelsea Cirruzzo and Ben Leonard

Presented by

With Alice Miranda Ollstein

Driving The Day

Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Frank Pallone (D-N.J.).

The House Energy and Commerce Committee, led by Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers and ranking member Frank Pallone, will hear testimony today from executives at health companies that use artificial intelligence in their products and services. | Francis Chung/POLITICO

PROBING AI IN HEALTH — Health care executives will praise the use of artificial intelligence in the industry before Congress today — but the hearing is unlikely to move the needle on regulation, Chelsea reports.

But, the American Medical Association has tapped the brakes, recently issuing its principles for AI use in health care, calling for certain regulations such as reduced liability for doctors if AI leads them astray. And the hearing comes a month after the Biden administration began to prod at the issue in a broad executive order on AI, directing HHS to develop a framework for the responsible use of AI.

The hearing is the fourth this fall by the committee on AI but the first focused solely on its use in health; other hearings have explored AI in energy and telecommunications.

Why it matters: Some providers already use AI in their practices, patients aren’t sure what to think about it and Congress has yet to make progress on policy around it.

However, today’s House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing will more likely be a fact-finding mission.

“This hearing will give our members a chance to hear from experts and those in the field about how AI is currently being used, as well as what guardrails, like a national data privacy standard, are needed to protect people’s privacy,” E&C Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) and Health Subcommittee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) said in a statement.

Witnesses include executives from HCA Healthcare, which started using AI in its facilities this year; Transcarent, which operates an app to help patients find providers and medication; and Siemens Healthineers, which provides AI workflow applications to providers — all of which will paint a relatively optimistic view of AI in health care as a tool for innovation, according to witness statements provided to the committee.

Other witnesses include providers from UC San Diego Health and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who will also likely extol the power of AI to potentially reduce clinician workforce burnout and improve health care outcomes, but also caution against letting the technologies go unregulated.

“AI to improve medical diagnosis poses significant risks but also presents uniquely large opportunities for positive impact,” Dr. David Newman-Toker, director of the division of neuro-visual and vestibular disorders in Johns Hopkins Medicine’s neurology department, wrote in his opening statement.

WELCOME TO WEDNESDAY PULSE. Forbes released its 30 under 30 list yesterday, and we were, sadly, not on it. Among its picks for health care are creators of a tool to summarize medical records and founders of a research consortium that develops AI algorithms for doctors.

Send your tips, scoops and feedback to ccirruzzo@politico.com and bleonard@politico.com and follow along @ChelseaCirruzzo and @_BenLeonard_.

TODAY ON OUR PULSE CHECK PODCAST, host Lauren Gardner talks with POLITICO global health care reporter Carmen Paun, who explains why U.S. health experts say the surge in respiratory infections in China is neither a sign of another pandemic nor cause for concern.

Listen to today’s Pulse Check podcast

A message from PhRMA:

Patients. Not Politicians. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) lets politicians decide what medicines are valuable and which diseases get researched. This could risk future treatments, including possible cures. No one should stand between you and your medicine. Get more details.

Mental Health

Gavin Newsom speaks.

California Governor Gavin Newsom's proposal would remake the state's mental health care system. | Damian Dovarganes/AP

MENTAL HEALTH REFORM DÉJÀ VU — California’s governor is pitching a once-in-a-generation mental health reform that’s causing angst among patients and their advocates, POLITICO’s Rachel Bluth reports.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants voters to approve 25,000 psychiatric and addiction beds. The price tag — $6.4 billion.

The devil is in the details, say some civil rights and mental health advocates who fear that the plan’s proposals will compel more and more people — deemed unable to care for themselves — into treatment.

But Democratic mayors of cities in the grips of housing and addiction problems have started loosening or changing laws around civil commitments. Some argue governments need a way to reach people who can’t or won’t seek help on their own.

It’s happening in Democratic strongholds throughout the country, from Seattle to New York City to Portland, Oregon, as leaders respond to a dramatic rise in homelessness that has made the lack of mental health services a more acute problem. But California is the first state where a Democratic governor has pushed such sweeping changes.

Newsom’s plan reflects a striking tack to the center for Democrats, who have taken harder lines on homeless encampments amid Republican accusations that their lax enforcement policies are to blame for rises in homelessness, addiction and crime.

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Abortion

ABORTION BAN CHALLENGE IN TEXAS — Texas’ Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday on a challenge to the medical exemptions in the state’s near-total abortion ban, which patients and providers testified are so vague that they leave doctors “terrified” to perform the procedure, Alice reports.

The lawsuit doesn’t seek to strike down the ban entirely but instead wants to merely clarify and broaden its exemptions for life- or health-threatening circumstances.

Background: A trial court ruled in August that the ban should not apply to people experiencing “dangerous pregnancy complications.” The state appealed that ruling, effectively blocking its implementation.

The state argued Tuesday that challengers had no standing to sue, they should take their argument to the state legislature instead of the courts and they should sue their doctors — not the state — for denying abortions the ban’s existing exemptions should cover.

The attorney for challengers of the law countered that her clients had ongoing standing to bring the challenge because some are pregnant again, some are trying to get pregnant again and some are doctors currently forced to turn away patients who aren’t “sick enough.”

The justices had a mixed reaction to these arguments. Some agreed that the law puts doctors “in a really bad situation" and said they “struggle to understand” why patients who nearly died have no standing to sue. Others agreed with the state that patients should sue their doctors for failing to interpret the law properly and worried that siding with the patients would make the ban’s exemptions too broad.

A message from PhRMA:

Public Health

RSV SHOT CHECK-UP — The manufacturers behind the respiratory syncytial virus immunization that has been in short supply for infants have released thousands of additional doses, the White House said in a statement.

Senior Biden administration officials, who met Monday with the shots’ suppliers, also promised “proactive planning … to meet next year’s projected demand for immunizations” with manufacturers, Chelsea reports.

Background: The shot, which received approval this summer from federal officials, is meant to protect infants from RSV, which hospitalizes thousands of babies annually. However, amid unprecedented demand, manufacturers AstraZeneca and Sanofi had to pause orders in October, and federal officials began urging providers to ration their doses for babies at the highest risk of severe disease.

In a statement, a Sanofi spokesperson said the company will work with federal officials to plan for next year.

Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said manufacturers were distributing 77,000 more doses of a monoclonal antibody shot — though rationing guidance remained. Children’s hospitals have said the shortages mean the shots, even when finally received, won’t have much impact on this year’s respiratory illness season.

JOIN WOMEN RULE ON 12/12: For centuries, women were left out of the rooms that shaped policy, built companies and led countries. Now, society needs the creativity and entrepreneurship of women more than ever. How can we make sure that women are given the space and opportunity to shape the world’s future for the better? Join POLITICO's Women Rule on Dec. 12 for Leading with Purpose: How Women Are Reinventing the World to explore this and more. REGISTER HERE.

Names in the News

Amber Talley, an alum of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and former Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), has launched Talley Strategies, a Virginia-based boutique health-policy consulting firm.

WHAT WE'RE READING

POLITICO’s Katherine Ellen Foley reports on the FDA investigating CAR-T immunotherapies for cancer risk.

POLITICO’s Caitlin Oprysko and Daniel Lippman report that the drugmaker behind Ozempic added a fifth new lobbying firm to its roster.

The Washington Post reports on the discovery of a new type of stem cell that could explain why cancer spreads more quickly to the spine than to other parts of the body.

A message from PhRMA:

Government price setting could put patients at a disadvantage. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) could have unintended consequences such as: Putting barriers between patients and their prescribed medications. Jeopardizing continued research into approved medicines. Shifting research and development away from pills and tablets. Learn more.