Health Insurance & AI — A Consumer No-No

For those over 65 and on Medicare, a decision on next year’s health insurance has to be done by December 7th. For people not on Medicare, the decision on whether to stay with a health insurer depends on when the policy expires.

Making decisions on what company to pick, or to stay with, is always a challenge. Many of us pour through information on the Internet before making a decision. Really smart people — as you all know — contact an agent and work with them on the best possible coverage for the lowest possible premium.

What most people won’t do in the whole process is trust AI to make the decision for them.

While the large technology companies rave about AI to improve our healthcare, Eileen Yam of the Pew Research Center found 60% of the 3,488 people surveyed do not like their physician using AI to help with a diagnosis or a plan for treatment.

“They generally don’t want AI operating solo,” Yam, the lead author of the report said. “They want a human in the loop doing final reviews.”

• Just 5% are open to insurance claims decisions being made by AI without an agent review

• 50% don’t want AI involved in any of this at all

• Those surveyed to not trust health insurance companies, the government or hospital leadership to work in their best interests when using AI

• They do trust a doctor to use AI in their best interests

• Over 50% say AI poses a risk to their personal health information

“For ordinary Americans navigating a world where AI is increasingly part of healthcare, we see in our data that their views on AI in healthcare are not a binary ‘thumbs up’ versus ‘thumbs down,” Yam said. “Americans just want to be informed when AI is being used in their care.”

Source link: Insurance Journal — https://bit.ly/4C0eJ4k