Washington’s U.S. Senate delegation has joined an effort by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon to halt a pilot program using AI to make care coverage decisions for Medicare patients. 

Eighteen Democratic senators, including U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray, both D-Washington, have signed onto Wyden’s resolution to invoke the Congressional Review Act to overturn continued use of the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction, or WISeR, model implemented by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this year in Washington state and five other states. 

Cantwell only weeks ago issued a report that found WISeR, significantly increased wait times for seniors to receive healthcare and has prioritized care denials over a patient’s doctor’s recommendation. The U.S. Government Accountability Office also recently found that the pilot program required review by Congress before being implemented. 

“For Washington’s seniors, WISeR is overriding doctors to delay care and deny treatment. My constituents should not have to suffer through bureaucratic delays disguised as modernization. This pilot program should never have been implemented without congressional oversight, and I call on my colleagues to stand up for Medicare patients and put a stop to WISeR,” Cantwell said in a statement. 

Murray said in a statement that she continues to hear from Washingtonians that they are not receiving care they need due to delays and burdens from WISeR’s implementation. 

“AI should not get to decide what healthcare patients can and can’t receive,” Murray said. 

CMS announced the pilot in the fall of 2025. Federal health officials said the program’s goal is to root out fraud, waste and abuse with Medicare, the federal program that provides health coverage to people older than 65 and younger people with disabilities. 

WISeR reviews requests for some of the most costly procedures. They include epidural steroid injections for pain management, skin and tissue substitutes, less invasive treatments for spinal stenosis and osteoarthritic knees, nerve stimulation for issues like sleep apnea and incontinence, among others. 

Cantwell’s report on WISeR used data collected by the Washington State Hospital Association from patients and providers at 16 hospitals around the state. They reported that care authorizations that previously took between one to three days are now taking 15 to 20 days to be issued. Those procedures that had two-week authorization time frames before WISeR was implemented now take four to eight weeks. 

Providers and hospitals also report that coverage denials often lack clear rationales or are inconsistent with clinical criteria. Some have hired additional staff to appeal coverage denials. 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, filed a federal lawsuit against CMS in late March to force the agency to provide information on any safeguards put in place to protect patients from algorithmic bias, privacy violations and wrongful denials of care.