The piece is an opinion essay, not reporting, and Gluck openly states his bias against the technology. No insurer has responded publicly, and no company statement or regulatory action tied to the letter has surfaced. The broader policy picture is also unsettled. In 2024, HHS sent a letter to insurance CEOs under the Biden-Harris administration's "Time is Money" initiative, urging insurers to improve customer service so people can get answers quickly and reach a human agent without long waits. Industry adoption is moving the other way. Stellarus, a health technology company that grew out of a Blue Shield of California restructuring, has launched an AI-powered Customer Service Representative Chat for plan staff. A 2024 survey of 1,000 insurance executives found that only 29% of customers were comfortable with generative AI virtual agents providing service.
Patients are also building AI tools to fight denials. Counterforce Health, a North Carolina nonprofit co-founded in January 2025 by Neal K. Shah, Gavry Eshet, Riyaa Jadhav, and Maggie Xu, grew out of Shah's experience contesting insurance denials during his wife's cancer treatment. In a test at a Wilmington clinic, its tool cut the time needed to prepare appeals and produced a higher success rate than typical manual processes.
Attorneys handling claims disputes, prior authorization, or insurer-side compliance should track how insurers document AI involvement in denials and whether they keep a clear path to a human reviewer. The HHS 2024 letter gives regulators a reference point if they choose to revisit customer service expectations. Gluck's account of repeated claims battles gives that criticism a concrete face, and it is likely to be cited in future disputes over AI-driven claims handling.