The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions has come out in support of a legislative vote that would bar CMS from expanding the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model — a controversial prior authorization pilot.
The House Appropriations Committee voted unanimously June 9 to add an amendment to the fiscal year 2027 spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services that would prevent any federal funds from being used to implement WISeR or any similar model that introduces prior authorization into traditional Medicare. The measure still needs to clear the full House and Senate before becoming law.
The Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction model was unveiled by CMS in June 2025 and launched Jan. 1, 2026, as a six-year pilot in six states: Arizona, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas and Washington. Under the program, CMS contracts with private technology companies to use AI and machine learning to review prior authorization requests for select services in traditional Medicare — a program that, unlike Medicare Advantage, has historically not required prior authorization.
SCAI has voiced strong opposition to the program, joining the Regulatory Relief Coalition to express concerns about the WISeR model to CMS. The American Hospital Association has been vocal about modifying the program.
The voice vote in the Republican-led committee signaled a bipartisan decision to move the amendment forward for 2027. Democrats have historically led the charge against the initiative, however, surfacing the most recent provisions in March and introducing resolutions in the House and Senate in May. Earlier in May, the Government Accountability Office decided WISeR is subject to the Congressional Review Act, granting Congress 60 days to disapprove.
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