Report Details Tech Firms Access to Trump Officials via Health Slack Workspace

In February, CMS Innovation Center AI chief Jacob Shiff told industry on Zoom the agency's work could be a sales engine for health apps. We're going to have a directory of all the organizations, he said, adding that people on the call with solutions that work would be the winners, with every incentive to drive down costs, stay profitable and scale as officials enabled them to thrive. KFF Health News reported Oct. 9, 2026 that the CMS Slack workspace Health Technology Ecosystem, opened August 2025, grew to about 1,700 members including Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, Apple and Google, with few patient advocates, doctors or hospitals. Amy Gleason, former acting DOGE administrator, is now chief product officer at CMS's Office of Health Technology and Products. That month the FDA held a listening session on patient-facing AI chatbots with at least 35 industry groups; it was not on public calendars and the invite circulated via Slack. CMS launched the Medicare App Library in April with more than 700 organization pledges and about 24 apps listed. Workspace rules said it was not an advisory committee and not for advice to HHS or CMS; Joseph Daval said it resembled one. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. posted this week that government must not let the Coalition for Health AI build a regulatory cartel, amplifying Jim O'Neill and Marty Makary. Patient-data access and app promotion remain open.