About that bipartisan $32B ‘roadmap’ for AI policy: What’s in it for healthcare?
This week Washington took a major step toward nailing down a solid game plan on federal AI spending for everything outside of defense.
On Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, flanked by two Senate Republicans and another Senate Democrat, released a 30-page “roadmap” to guide fiscal deliberations in congressional committee meetings to come.
The document calls for plunking down “at least” 32 billion taxpayer dollars in 2026. That will be a massive increase from the $1.7 billion allocated for nondefense R&D spending on AI in 2022. Then too the 2026 amount is consistent with the dollar figure proposed in 2021 by the independent National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence.
Schumer’s four-member AI Working Group—the other three senators are Indiana Republican Todd Young, New Mexico Democrat Martin Heinrich and South Dakota Republican Mike Rounds—stated their intention to remain “steadfast in our dedication to harnessing the full potential of AI while minimizing the risks of AI in the near and long term.”
In a section of the document focused on concerns unique to healthcare, the group exhorts the relevant congressional committees to do five things:
1. Consider legislation that both supports further deployment of AI in healthcare and implements appropriate guardrails and safety measures to protect patients.
Patients must be front and center in any legislative efforts on healthcare and AI. This includes consumer protection, preventing fraud and abuse, and promoting the usage of accurate and representative data.
2. Support the NIH in the development and improvement of AI technologies.
In particular, data governance should be a key area of focus across the NIH and other relevant agencies, with an emphasis on making healthcare and biomedical data available for machine learning and data science research, while carefully addressing the privacy issues raised by the use of AI in this area.
3. Ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology—has the proper tools to weigh the benefits and risks of AI-enabled products.
The purpose of this item is to help HHS provide a predictable regulatory structure for product developers.
4. Consider legislation that would provide transparency for providers and the public.
Transparency is critical to the safe and efficacious use of AI in medical products and clinical support services. It’s equally important in regard to the data used to train the AI models.
5. Consider policies to promote innovation of AI systems that meaningfully improve health outcomes and efficiencies in healthcare delivery.
This should include examining the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ reimbursement mechanisms as well as guardrails to ensure accountability, appropriate use and broad application of AI across all populations.
The four roadmap authors note that much of the document’s material traces to the AI forums convened by Schumer in 2023 with numerous AI experts and stakeholders.
“We hope this roadmap will stimulate momentum for new and ongoing consideration of bipartisan AI legislation, ensure the United States remains at the forefront of innovation in this technology, and help all Americans benefit from the many opportunities created by AI,” they write.
We [also] hope committees will continue to seek outside input from a variety of stakeholders and experts to inform the best path forward for this quickly advancing technology.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.