John,
Picture this: life-and-death decisions about your health made not by your doctor, not even by another human being, but by a machine. Algorithms spitting out denials in bulk, with no regard for your circumstances, your pain, or the impact on your life. That’s what happens when Artificial Intelligence is put in charge of medical authorizations -- it takes human judgment out of medicine, replacing it with cold cost-cutting formulas.
This isn’t some sci-fi dystopia. It’s happening right now. Medicare Advantage providers -- UnitedHealthcare, Humana, and CVS -- are already letting AI systems decide whether patients get the treatments their doctors prescribe. Now, Congress has given traditional Medicare a green light to test its own AI pilot program in 2026, known as the “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model.” The name itself tells the story: “Reduction” of “Service” -- it’s about cutting care, not saving lives.
For generations, doctors and specialists have carried the moral weight of healthcare decisions. They know their patients. They understand that a delay in treatment can mean permanent harm, or that a denial can mean the difference between recovery and decline. To hand these decisions over to machines -- built to serve insurers’ bottom lines, not patients -- is to strip away the very human judgment that medicine depends on.
Send a direct message to Congress: Ban the use of AI in prior authorization decisions. Don’t let machines replace human doctors in making life-and-death choices.
The red flags are already starting to wave:
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When UnitedHealthcare began using AI, denials of post-acute care like rehab and nursing homes more than doubled in just two years. In some categories, denials increased 16-fold.
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Across insurers adopting AI for authorization reviews, denials jumped by 54% to 108%.
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A Senate report found patients subjected to AI review are facing higher premiums, filling more lawsuits, and experiencing delays in care.
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Doctors overwhelmingly agree: in an AMA survey, 94% said these denials harm patients, and 82% reported patients abandoning treatment altogether due to AI roadblocks.
No algorithm, no matter how sophisticated, can weigh the human cost of suffering, delay, or denial. Only a physician with clinical judgment and ethical responsibility can -- and should -- make those calls.
Don’t leave life and death decisions to AI. Tell Congress to stop Medicare from using AI to determine prior authorizations for medical procedures.
Thank you for preventing AI from deciding who will get healthcare, and who won’t.
-DFA AF Team
