During Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID) questioned James O'Neill, nominee to be Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, about using artificial intelligence within the nation’s healthcare industry.
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00:00Mr. Andres, I'll start with you, Mr. O'Neill, and I'd like to talk about artificial intelligence first.
00:05You referred to that in your testimony.
00:08AI presents vast opportunities across all sectors of American society, and that includes health care.
00:14AI-enabled innovations can enhance provider clinical decision-making and expand access to health care in rural areas.
00:22It can also be helpful in bolstering program integrity practices in federal health programs
00:26by curbing the waste, fraud, and abuse that harms patients and taxpayers.
00:31Mr. O'Neill, you're a leader in health care and aging research with valuable experience
00:36in working with emerging health technologies.
00:40How can Congress support the Department's efforts to develop and deploy AI tools
00:44within the Medicare and Medicaid programs?
00:48Thank you for the question, Senator.
00:50It's true.
00:51Artificial intelligence as well as neural nets and other machine learning technologies
00:57have an immense potential in improving the delivery of health care, the accuracy and speed of research,
01:03and the operations of the department.
01:07It's something I heard about from many of your colleagues in meetings over the past month.
01:11So, you asked specifically about Medicare and Medicaid.
01:17It's important that all decisions made by CMS, as well as by other affiliated entities that are involved
01:24in delivering and reimbursing Medicare and Medicaid, are able to make quick and accurate decisions
01:32for millions of beneficiaries, and I think artificial intelligence always has the potential
01:39in helping human actors be faster and make better informed and more objective decisions.
01:48And, Mr. Andres, I'd like to talk to you about timeliness.
01:54I suspect you're very familiar with the dynamic I'm going to describe to you,
01:58but the HHS Secretary annually testifies before the Finance Committee
02:02on the President's proposed budget blueprint.
02:05During former Secretary Becerra's tenure, responses to written questions for the record
02:10were not delivered in a timely manner.
02:13The most egregious example occurred last year.
02:17The FY2024 HHS budget hearing took place on March 22, 2023.
02:23Answers to members' questions were not submitted for the record.
02:28Were not received until February 22, 2024, 11 months later.
02:36Even more troubling, former Secretary Becerra was scheduled to testify on President Biden's
02:41FY2025 budget blueprint 10 days later in March 2024.
02:49Understanding that HHS staff needs sufficient time to prepare clear responses,
02:53a year seems to me to be pretty excessive.
02:55Will you commit to responding in a more timely fashion to members' questions for the record?
03:02Senator Capo, thank you for that question.
03:06And one thing I wanted to add to his context is that as I've gone around
03:11and met with senators on this committee and with their staff,
03:16the concern that you're raising has been something I've heard over and over and over again.
03:22So, number one, I'm aware of that and I'm sensitive to it.
03:26Number two, I think both from my positions as working as a congressional staffer,
03:33I understand the importance of timely responses to congressional inquiries.
03:42I also know that from my White House tenure, that was something that you always heard about from the agencies as well.
03:50I do commit that I will try to the best of my ability to be as responsive and accountable and timely and transparent as possible.
04:01Well, thank you very much.
04:02And that question and your response focused on the response to us, to our questions and concerns.
04:07I'd like to ask about another aspect of it.
04:11Given your extensive experience on Capitol Hill, how do you plan to continue fostering strong relationships?
04:17And I'm focusing on this.
04:18How would you ensure that our concerns, as we raise them, are clearly and efficiently communicated to the secretary?
04:28So, one of the things that I would like to do, if confirmed in this position, Senator,
04:34is be more available and present myself up here on Capitol Hill.
04:41I think a lot of times, one of the things I've observed over the years is that in positions like this,
04:48you can tend to get pinned down very much inside the department or inside the building
04:53and not have the kind of visibility that I think is important to hear what the preferences and needs are
05:03of the folks on the Hill.
05:05So, that's one way I will try to do that and try to be more present to you,
05:12to other senators of this committee and the Senate overall, as well as your staff.
05:17All right.
05:17Thank you very much.
05:18My time has expired.
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