The new AI rules on the block

The ideas and innovators shaping health care

Mar 28, 2024 View in browser   By Ruth Reader, Daniel Payne, Erin Schumaker and Carmen Paun TECH MAZE Vice President Kamala Harris discussed the administration's first government-wide AI rules this week. | AFP via Getty Images The Biden administration issued its first set of government-wide artificial intelligence policies. In a press briefing ahead of the announcement, Vice President Kamala Harris said agencies must independently vet their artificial intelligence and share findings with the public. The rules, issued by White House Office of Management and Budget, extend only to tech that could impact the public’s rights or safety. For agencies regulating and administering health care that means tools that help make diagnoses, detect mental health issues, flag patients for interventions and perform other medical administrative functions like health insurance risk assessments. During the briefing, Harris used Veterans Affairs as an example. “If the Veterans Administration wants to use AI in VA hospitals to help doctors diagnose patients, they would first have to demonstrate that AI does not produce racially biased diagnoses,” she said. Harris outlined three main pillars: — AI tools must not endanger the rights and safety of the American people. — Agencies must publish an annual report revealing where and how they use AI systems, including potential risks and safeguards. — Federal agencies must designate a chief AI officer who can oversee all AI used throughout the agency. Why it matters: Veterans Affairs is already testing AI in its medical centers. In 2019, the agency created the National Artificial Intelligence Institute to test and deploy AI to improve care. Additionally, some VA doctors use AI like Medtronic’s GI Genius, which helps detect colorectal cancer in imaging, and a suicide prevention algorithm. Lawmakers are concerned the VA doesn’t disclose its use of AI to patients. In February, during a hearing on AI before the House Veterans’ Affairs Technology Modernization Subcommittee, Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) accused the VA of not disclosing its AI use to patients. “You’re not giving them a choice, and that is dangerous,” he said. Now, the agency will have to give them a choice. The rules require agencies to disclose the AI they use and its risks and performance, and to give people the ability to opt out of using it. What’s next: Government agencies have 60 days to select a chief AI officer and convene an agency governance board to set out a strategy. They have until Dec. 1 to implement risk-management strategies for new and existing AI, though they can ask for an extension. WELCOME TO FUTURE PULSE Lake George, N.Y. | Rick Schumaker This is where we explore the ideas and innovators shaping health care. Weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy represented roughly a fifth, or $1.5 billion, of the pharmaceutical industry’s ad spend last year, according to MediaRadar. That's a 51 percent increase from 2022. Share any thoughts, news, tips and feedback with Carmen Paun at cpaun@politico.com, Daniel Payne at dpayne@politico.com, Ruth Reader at rreader@politico.com or Erin Schumaker at eschumaker@politico.com. Send tips securely through SecureDrop, Signal, Telegram or WhatsApp. THE REGULATORS Global leaders are trying to decide which model of AI regulations will become the international standard. | AP The U.S. isn’t the only game in town when it comes to regulating AI. Leaders worldwide are proposing ways to handle the tech. The stakes are high: How those regulations work — in health care and beyond — could largely be driven by the first country to write them and secure international support, POLITICO reporters in the EU and U.S. write. The global race to control AI has top U.S. and EU officials pitching their (often conflicting) approaches to keeping the decade-defining tech from causing disasters across industries, including health care. American leaders have focused on using existing laws to move relatively quickly on AI regulations, leaning on the private sector’s perspective when making the rules. Despite President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI, which has pushed agencies into action, the American approach has thus far relied on industry making its own standards and, in some cases, asking the government to clarify its approach. European leaders have instead been eyeing stronger government approaches, such as bans on invasive forms of AI and strict transparency requirements for companies developing AI products. Regardless of the approach, leaders are trying to balance the urgent need for rules with a desire to come out on top in whatever agreement is forged among Western nations. WASHINGTON WATCH The first lady met with health insurance leaders over the government's cancer moonshot initiative. | Getty Images A cancer moonshot sit-down between first lady Jill Biden and health insurance executives Wednesday highlights the program’s increasing reliance on the private sector. The gathering comes after the White House announced earlier this month that it had secured commitments from seven health insurance companies to use new Medicare billing codes to pay for patient navigation services. A navigator guides patients through the health care system, which can be especially confusing and scary after a cancer diagnosis. Medicare began paying for certain patient navigation services on Jan. 1. “[President Joe Biden’s] administration put in place new billing codes, ones that Medicare and other health insurers can use to pay for patient navigation services,” Jill Biden said. “But for those codes to help the most people, insurance companies need to use them, and that’s where you all come in.” Who's who: The groups that have committed to covering navigator services for people with cancer — Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, Elevance Health, Health Alliance Plan, Humana, Priority Health and Select Health — collectively serve more than 150 million patients. Aim high: While reducing the cancer death rate by half over 25 years is the oft-referenced goal of the cancer moonshot, the initiative also aims to improve the lives of people with cancer and their families. “They help patients with everything from scheduling appointments to keeping track of medications to coordinating things like transportation and child care,” Jill Biden said of patient navigators. “When you have someone who knows the system by your side every step of the way, it changes everything.” Reality check: The spending package Congress passed this month doesn’t include new funding for Biden’s cancer moonshot. While many agencies, including the National Cancer Institute and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, which funded a number of cancer-related initiatives last year, are heavily invested in the effort, the moonshot program also has turned to the private sector recently to further its goals.   Follow us on Twitter Carmen Paun @carmenpaun Daniel Payne @_daniel_payne Ruth Reader @RuthReader Erin Schumaker @erinlschumaker   Follow us

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