The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to obtain records from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) about a multi-state program using AI to evaluate requests for medical care.

Launched January 2026, the program known as WISeR (Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction) uses AI to assess prior authorization requests from Medicare beneficiaries. Healthcare experts, care providers, and lawmakers have all raised alarms that WISeR may cause serious harm to patients by relying on AI unless it has the necessary safeguards.

Little is known about how the AI algorithms used in WISeR work, including what training data they rely on. It remains unclear whether WISeR has any safeguards against systemic flaws such as algorithmic bias, privacy violations, and wrongful denials of care.

EFF’s FOIA request seeks, among other records, agreements with software vendors participating in WISeR; records related to any tests for accuracy, bias, or hallucinations in vendors' technology; and records related to any audits, monitoring, or evaluation of WISeR and participating vendors.