Re: “New Medicare program using AI leaves WA patients in pain” (March 18, Enterprise):
Now the true prices of the “Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Discount” program are revealed: debilitating ache, delay or denial of remedy, and medical professionals’ time wasted on authorization requests.
We don’t have to just accept this. There are a number of payments in Congress, together with laws sponsored by our Washington senators (S.3480) and representatives (H.R.5940), the Seniors Deserve SMARTER Care Act, that might halt the WISeR program. And in Arizona, one of many different affected states, lawsuits have been filed to cease WISeR.
WISeR strikes Conventional Medicare nearer to the non-public Medicare Benefit system, which has lengthy relied on prior authorization to extend company income. MedPac, the impartial company created by Congress, estimates that Medicare Benefit insurers will overcharge the Medicare system by $76 billion in 2026.
To chop waste, fraud and abuse, why not begin with the Medicare Benefit system?
Anne Watanabe, Seattle
