AI and tech firms lobby CMS and health officials in a government-run Slack workspace

Mixed · 2A Slack workspace managed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has let tech executives, financiers and senior Trump administration officials spend about a year planning a campaign to get Americans to use AI-powered apps to manage their healthcare and medical records, according to a KFF Health News investigation. 1 2 Mixed · 2KFF Health News said it reviewed thousands of Slack messages, meeting transcripts and video recordings. It said these show industry had a direct line to top officials, including Amy Gleason, the former acting head of the Department of Government Efficiency. 1 2 Mixed · 2The workspace began in August 2025, when Gleason welcomed members and pointed them to a code of conduct. That code says the group is not an "advisory committee" and will not be used to obtain advice or recommendations for HHS or CMS officials. Membership has grown to 1,700, and includes companies such as Oura Health, Palantir and the venture firm 8VC, but only a handful of patient advocates, doctors and hospital representatives. 1 2

Mixed · 2In February, an invitation posted in the Slack workspace asked companies including Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple and Google to a Food and Drug Administration listening session on conversational AI products for patients. At least 35 industry organisations attended. The meeting was not on the FDA's public calendar or in regulatory notices, and the public was not invited. 1 2 Mixed · 2Joseph Daval, a former FDA lawyer now at Harvard Medical School, reviewed messages at KFF's request. He said the chat room in some ways resembles a federal advisory committee, which would face independence and fair-balance membership requirements and must operate in public view. CMS has not formally announced the workspace through federal regulatory channels, though officials have mentioned it at industry conferences. 1 2 Mixed · 2On video calls, CMS officials told participants the agency would promote their apps. Jacob Shiff, chief AI and technology officer at CMS' Innovation Center, said in February he hoped the work would be a "sales engine" for the apps. CMS senior policy adviser Morgan Taylor said at an April 7 meeting that apps listed on medicare.gov would be ones enrollees would trust. The Medicare App Library now promotes about two dozen commercial apps, and the recording of the February call was made private the day after KFF asked about it. 1 2

Mixed · 2CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz said in September the aim was to "give industry a chance to play in the sandbox of government-supported healthcare." Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last week that AI is "much better informed than any doctor in the country." 1 2 Mixed · 2John Whyte, CEO of the American Medical Association, said "Some of these tools just aren't ready for primetime" and noted there is no liability if they get things wrong. 1 2 Mixed · 2CMS officials declined to answer several questions, including about the workspace's legality, how apps are chosen for the library and why employees promised to promote products. The FDA did not respond. Gleason, now chief product officer of CMS's Office of Health Technology and Products, said in an emailed statement that the Health Technology Ecosystem is "an open, voluntary technical collaboration." 1 2