Dive Brief:
- The Department of Health and Human Services is asking the healthcare industry how the department could help speed the adoption of artificial intelligence in the sector, including in clinical care.
- The request for information, released Friday, is looking for input on how the HHS could use its powers to improve patient and caregiver experiences and outcomes, reduce provider burden, improve quality of care and lower healthcare costs.
- The department is also looking for details on steps it could take to accelerate the technology’s implementation in clinical care. The RFI asks how digital health and software regulations need to change to include AI tools, how the department could simplify payment to encourage the use of the technology and what research and development investments could offer best practices for adoption.
Dive Insight:
The RFI, issued by the HHS’ Office of the Deputy Secretary and the Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy and Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, builds on other actions from the Trump administration to bolster AI implementation across the nation, including the HHS’ recently released strategy for deploying the tools within the agency.
The Trump administration has largely taken a deregulatory stance toward AI, arguing onerous rules could hamper the development and rollout of the potentially transformative technology. For example, President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier this month seeking to challenge some state AI laws.
But that posture has left the healthcare sector with limited federal oversight to manage the rollout of AI tools, which could be hazardous to patient care if not implemented carefully. Incorrect or misleading information, biased data used to train models and AI performance degradation over time can create challenges for deployment in healthcare.
So, many health systems have focused their AI rollouts on tools that assist with back-office or administrative tasks — like revenue cycle management, handling prior authorization requests or clinical documentation — in part because those areas seem less risky, experts say.
Now, the HHS is looking for insight on how the department could assist with the technology’s adoption in clinical care. The agency wants to create a regulatory environment that is “well understood, predictable, and proportionate to any risks” to push rapid innovation while protecting patients and their health data, the HHS said in the RFI.
The department is also asking for feedback on how it could change reimbursement policy to ensure payers can promote access to AI clinical interventions, foster competition between AI companies and improve access to and affordability of AI tools.
Additionally, the HHS wants input on how the department can invest in research to boost AI adoption, including public-private partnerships and cooperative research agreements.
The department is particularly interested in comments from those who are building AI tools for clinical settings, organizations that are buying or implementing the tools, as well as those that want to use AI but face barriers to access, Steven Posnack, principal deputy assistant secretary for technology policy at ASTP, wrote in a blog post.
Comments are due 60 days after the RFI is published in the Federal Register on Dec. 23.
