Samwise Healthcare IT Newsletter
Friday, May 22, 2026
Congressional Democrats Move to Repeal CMS Medicare AI Prior Authorization Pilot
Congressional Democrats in the Senate and House introduced resolutions Wednesday to repeal the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction program, a Medicare pilot using artificial intelligence to manage prior authorization for 13 low-value services in six states. Senators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray of Washington, joined by 20 colleagues, invoked the Congressional Review Act after the Government Accountability Office ruled CMS never obtained required congressional approval before the pilot launched January 1. Washington State Hospital Association data showed procedures that previously took two weeks to authorize now take four to eight weeks, with University of Washington Medical System providers averaging 15 to 20 days per request.
Sources: STAT News
Physician Advocate Pushes ‘Glass Box’ AI Traceability as Prerequisite for Clinical Trust
Physicians will only trust artificial intelligence when the technology explains its reasoning, respects human judgment, and returns clinical time rather than consuming it, according to Dr. Niki Panich, chief medical officer at Penguin AI and a practicing family physician, in reporting by Healthcare IT News published May 21. Panich is advocating for what she calls glass box traceability, where AI-generated recommendations surface their supporting clinical reasoning rather than delivering opaque conclusions. In one case she describes, AI-generated discharge guidance surfaced a nursing note about a recent patient fall at home that the treating physician had not yet read, allowing care to be reconsidered before a potentially harmful medication was prescribed.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Survey: Patient Trust in Healthcare AI Is Conditional, Generational, and Tied to Human Oversight
Trust in healthcare artificial intelligence is both conditional and generational, according to a new survey reported by Healthcare IT News in May 2026, with patients willing to accept AI in certain workflows but resistant in high-stakes clinical decisions. The four most cited reassurance factors among patients are all tied to human presence and accountability: knowing a physician reviewed the AI recommendation, understanding how the AI reached its conclusion, confirming the data is kept private, and having the option to request a human override. Nearly 31 percent of patients already use generative AI tools such as ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews to research healthcare providers before appointments.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Healthcare Sector Accelerates Shared Digital Identity Infrastructure Amid Fraud and Interoperability Pressures
Healthcare organizations are rapidly deploying higher-assurance digital identity infrastructure as interoperability mandates, patient portal fraud, and AI-driven impersonation risks intensify sector-wide pressure. Verato launched its Verato Identity Network, a shared neutral utility layer enabling providers, payers, and health information exchanges to synchronize patient populations without building custom bridges to each partner. Epic separately made identity assurance level 2-compliant patient verification tools from 1Kosmos and Vouched available natively in MyChart, covering document authentication, biometric matching, and liveness detection. Despite 85 percent of healthcare IT leaders calling passwordless access mission-critical, only 7 percent have fully implemented it.
Sources: Healthcare IT News
Commure Raises $70M at $7B Valuation to Scale Healthcare AI Administrative Platform
Healthcare AI platform company Commure raised 70 million dollars May 19 in a round led by General Catalyst with participation from Sequoia Capital, pushing the company to a 7 billion dollar post-money valuation and bringing total capital raised to 750 million dollars. Commure builds AI agents that embed directly into health system and provider workflows, targeting the approximately 1 trillion dollars spent annually on healthcare administrative processes including scheduling, billing, and patient outreach. The company said funds will be used to scale its platform and continue development of clinical workflow automation tools. Commure competes in a growing field of healthcare AI companies building agentic tools for administrative tasks.
Sources: Fierce Healthcare
What's Trending in Healthcare IT
Agentic AI Governance Frameworks Formalized Across Health Systems — Health systems are rapidly building structured AI governance programs, with CIOs creating review boards and audit processes to oversee autonomous AI agent decisions before and during clinical deployment.
Epic Extends Acute Care EHR Lead as Oracle Health Loses Ground — Epic captured 43.7 percent of acute care hospital market share in 2025, adding 77 hospitals while Oracle Health shed 56, per new KLAS data, with smaller health systems driving most movement.
TEFCA Interoperability Exchange Surpasses 500 Million Record Milestone — Records exchanged through the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement grew 4,900 percent since January 2025, reaching nearly 500 million as TEFCA becomes the backbone of nationwide health data sharing.
Curated by JD · samwise.agency
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