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A powerful California lawmaker wants to regulate how artificial intelligence systems interact with health plan participants.
Assemblymember Mia Bonte, a Democrat who chairs the assembly's Health Committee, has introduced a bill that would keep the developers and users of AI systems from having the AI systems imply that they are doctors, nurses or other types of licensed or certified health professionals.
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California state law already requires health care providers to warn patients when AI systems have generated messages.
The new bill would expand the scope of the existing rules and make pretending that an AI is a live-human doctor or nurse a separate, punishable crime.
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The bill has support from the California Medical Association and from SEIU California, a labor organization.
"Patients deserve to know if the medical advice they are receiving is coming from a bot or a trained and qualified health care professional," Dr. Shannon Udovic-Constant, the president of the California Medical Association, said in a statement of support for the bill.
Many of the traditional health plans and telehealth plans employers offer are using AI systems to manage customer service, review claims, detect possible signs of fraud and look for opportunities to improve workers' health.
Some workers are starting to use AI-based systems to get health care services such as psychotherapy,
State legislatures have been weighing for decades on bills affecting the "scope of practice" of health care providers such as optometrists, midwives and nurse practitioners. Now, developers of AI systems have joined the scope of practice fray.
The American Benefits Council, for example, has included artificial intelligence, generative AI and robots in its description of the kinds of technology that the council likes. Part of its Destination 2030 strategic plan calls for the council to "support public policy that appropriately allows emerging or evolving technologies to transform and improve health and financial wellbeing."
But the council also notes that it may support some types of benefits technology regulation, such as focused efforts to protect health data security.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
