An open question from CMS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is asking whether artificial intelligence should play a bigger part in the annual wellness visit, the yearly preventive check-up that Medicare covers for its beneficiaries.
The question sits in the proposed 2027 Physician Fee Schedule rule, in a formal request for information with eight parts. CMS wants to know which AI uses are realistic, which tasks still need a clinician, where the barriers are, and how the work should be paid for and evaluated.
What the tools would do
The agency lists several possible jobs for AI: collecting beneficiary-reported information such as the health risk assessment before the visit, flagging patients who may need further assessment, and drafting suggested follow-up steps for a clinician to review.
Stephanie Carlton, CMS's deputy administrator and chief clinical AI officer, discussed the idea at a health technology conference in Washington last week.
Doctors are open, with conditions
The American Academy of Family Physicians said it supports careful use of the technology, for finding patients who are due for a visit, summarising records, spotting gaps in preventive care, helping with documentation and supporting follow-up. The group argued that good tools could cut administrative work and give care teams more capacity for timely, coordinated care.
Others are wary that automating parts of a visit turns a conversation into a data-entry exercise, or that software-generated risk scores could steer patients toward or away from services. CMS has not proposed changing payment for the visit; the comment period is the next step.
The annual wellness visit pays roughly $174 under the 2026 fee schedule. Any shift in how it is delivered would reach a large share of older Americans, and the answer CMS settles on will be watched by insurers, software vendors and primary care groups alike.