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Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (WA-01) forced a vote on an amendment during a Ways & Means Committee markup that would require the Trump administration to release yet-unseen information about the WISeR program. The program pays private companies to use AI to delay and deny care to seniors in Washington and five other states.

Since the program began in January, patients have been left in severe pain and unable to access the care prescribed by their doctors. In June, DelBene announced that Virtix, the company administering WISeR in Washington, was ordered to submit a corrective action plan for delays in reviewing claims after a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) audit of its performance. Neither document has been released to Congress or the public.

The amendment would force CMS to release any audits or corrective action plans for WISeR-participating companies within 3 months. It would also direct the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to analyze the impacts of Medicare Advantage plans’ red tape on patients and providers. Ways & Means Republicans rejected the amendment by an 18-19 vote.

“It’s clear why the administration is doing everything they can to conceal these documents. The more that Americans learn about WISeR, the more outraged they get at the Trump administration for jeopardizing their care and trying to privatize Medicare,” said DelBene.

This effort was informed by a bombshell report released by the Electronic Frontier Foundation that revealed widespread delays and denials of care, operational chaos, and reports of patient harm. The report contains nearly 1,000 pages of documentation, including contracts with participating companies, internal reports, and health care providers’ complaints about the program, that were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and lawsuit. It also sheds light on the CMS’ plan to expand WISeR to cancer treatments and other types of care.

DelBene introduced legislation last November to repeal WISeR and has led multiple other legislative efforts to stop the program.

Watch DelBene’s remarks here. The text of the amendment can be found here.