On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services outlined its next steps for accelerating artificial intelligence in clinical care, releasing key feedback from healthcare organizations on how the agency's regulatory, research, and reimbursement powers can drive adoption. The effort aims to improve patient outcomes and curb rising healthcare costs as an aging population strains the system.
Industry demands practical guidance and coordination
The HHS received hundreds of comments after issuing a request for information in December. Arman Sharma, the HHS's deputy chief AI officer, said providers, researchers, and professional groups converged on three main asks. Healthcare organizations want practical guidance on implementing and creating governance structures for AI. They also need evaluation and benchmarking tools to identify which AI products work well. Finally, they urged the HHS to break down silos and coordinate its AI strategy across its many agencies.
"Too often in government, the right hand doesn't talk to the left hand," Sharma said. "And the opportunity for healthcare AI that we have is simply too important for us to get lost in ourselves, so to speak." The department's push comes as more clinical settings explore how to integrate AI for Healthcare into daily workflows, aiming to reduce administrative burdens and give patients more control over their health.
Sharma tied these requests directly to building trust. "We believe that starting with these three things and acting on constant engagement from this community is what's needed to establish trust," he said. "And trust in this technology is the only thing that will lead to responsible, but also effective, adoption."
Agencies move on AI tools and policy
HHS agency leaders also shared concrete steps already underway. The Administration for Community Living launched a competition this year for developers building AI tools to assist caregivers of older Americans or people with disabilities. Meanwhile, the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health is working on AI agents that can autonomously manage cardiovascular disease care.
At the Food and Drug Administration, policy development is active but details remain under wraps. Dr. Rick Abramson, director of the FDA's Digital Health Center of Excellence, said the agency is focused on several major themes. These include clarifying what the FDA regulates and what it requires of developers, crafting regulations proportionate to an AI tool's risk, and addressing oversight across a product's entire lifecycle-from pre-market review to post-market monitoring. The FDA is also coordinating its policies with other government agencies, professional groups, and international regulators, reflecting the growing complexity of AI for Government.
Abramson acknowledged the tension between the speed of technology and the pace of regulation. "It's been said that technology evolves on a scale of weeks to months, while regulation evolves on a scale of months to years," he said. "There is some truth to that, and the world is looking to the FDA for leadership in how to approach advanced clinical AI tools."
Why this matters for healthcare professionals
For clinicians and hospital leaders, the HHS update signals that federal guidance is coming-but slowly. The immediate takeaways are practical: prepare governance frameworks, invest in tools that come with clear benchmarking data, and expect cross-agency consistency to remain a work in progress. The FDA's lifecycle approach suggests that AI tools will face ongoing scrutiny even after deployment, so clinical teams should track performance metrics rigorously. As insurers and regulators push toward value-based care, AI's ability to cut administrative costs and extend clinical capacity will be measured not just in pilots but in real-world outcomes.
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