Investigation reveals tech giants privately influence Trump administration AI healthcare policy via Slack

A KFF Health News investigation found that representatives from tech companies including Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple, and Google participated in shaping federal AI healthcare regulation policy through a chat room that CMS established on Slack. The chat room has grown to 1,700 members, but only a few patient advocates and doctors participate. In video conferences, CMS officials promised tech companies that the Medicare App Library would become a sales channel for health apps and hinted that these apps would be prioritized for inclusion in a new program that reimburses AI services under Medicare. Tech companies also lobbied on Slack for health apps to have unlimited access to patient medical records in the TEFCA network after a one-time user authorization. Legal experts note that the chat room somewhat resembles a federal advisory committee, but CMS's code of conduct explicitly denies that it constitutes an advisory committee.