CMS Shaped AI Health Policy in a Private Slack

CMS officials helped shape federal AI healthcare policy inside a government-run Slack workspace of about 1,700 participants, most of them technology executives and investors, according to a KFF Health News investigation reported by HISTalk.

The concern is access and process. Federal rulemaking normally runs through public comment and documented channels that any stakeholder can see and join. A private Slack dominated by industry insiders gives a select group an informal line to policymakers, while patient advocates, clinicians, and the general public are left outside the room. That matters for AI specifically, where the rules will decide how algorithms are paid for, validated, and deployed across Medicare and Medicaid.

For health-tech leaders, the story is a signal that AI oversight is being written now, and that who participates shapes the outcome. Expect scrutiny of CMS over conflicts of interest and transparency, and potential pressure to move these conversations into the open. Watch for follow-up from oversight bodies and calls for a formal, auditable public process.