CES on AI Policy: Will Healthcare Execs and The Feds Work Together?

While much of the focus at CES is on innovative technology, a policy panel on the first day of the event discussed how the government can shape AI standards

With innovation on full display at CES this week, one of the more compelling panel discussions on the first full day focused on the intersection of technology and policy. And the general consensus was that collaboration is best.

“We’re definitely seeing the right incremental steps being taken,” said Matthew Hine, a senior international trade specialist in the Office of Health Industries, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Industry and Analysis business unit.

To wit: The Biden Administration has been focused so far on working with the healthcare industry to develop AI policy, particularly around standards and guidelines. And health system executives have so far said they’re moving cautiously but firmly forward, using the technology where they can but making sure a human still makes the final decision when clinical care is concerned.

Congress isn’t in the loop on developing policy, though some lawmakers have called for more of a say on the matter. And that’s OK with Conor Sheehy, a senior health policy advisor for the minority staff of the Senate Finance Committee.

“It’s not an area where Congress, to my mind, has shown a great deal of expertise … or understanding,” he pointed out.

Both Sheehy and Marisa Salemme, a senior health policy advisor for the majority staff on the Senate Finance Committee, agreed that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have been in agreement on supporting the use of innovative technologies, such as virtual care. The hope is that Congress will push through a logjam of healthcare-related bills this year, giving health systems more opportunities to use technology.

But the challenges remain. Healthcare is still focused on reimbursing providers for episodes of care, and is only moving slowly towards outcomes-based care. And providers won’t embrace new technology if they’re not incentivized to use it. To that end, both the government and Congress need to come together on incentives that will spur the use of innovative technology.

How or when that happens remains to be seen. And some parts of that conversation are expected to be picked up on Wednesday with the opening of the Digital Health Summit, as well as in a special panel session featuring FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter, and FCC Commissioners Brendan Carr and Anna Gomez.

That’s also why health system executives aren’t flocking to CES to take in the latest innovations in consumer technology, and are instead keeping tabs on the technology from afar. New technology and ideas need room to grow into healthcare, and that isn’t happening at a time when operating margins are thin and hospitals are struggling to stay afloat.

Many of the companies exhibiting in the digital health space at CES have said they’re talking with health systems about small pilot programs, but the key to adoption lies in support from the payers, especially the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS has been traditionally hesitant to embrace new technology like telemedicine and digital health, thougn the gradual move toward reimbursing for remote patient monitoring tools and services has spurred some hope.

“Medicare reimbursement would be huge,” said Aaron Labbe, co-founder and chief technology officer for LUCID Therapeutics, a company that develops music-based treatments for providers and is talking to health systems about using the technology in everything from pediatric care to the ICU. “We need their support.”