Laptop with Microsoft Copilot+ installed. As more insurers, hospitals and doctors employ artificial intelligence in health care, state lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want to regulate its employ. (Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Recently, a bipartisan group of Pennsylvania state legislators he made a plan regulate the employ of artificial intelligence in health care.
Four Pennsylvania House Democrats and one House Republican plan to introduce legislation that would require insurers, hospitals and other providers to follow certain rules when using artificial intelligence in patient care, billing and coding, claims processing and other health-related services.
“As the only doctor in [Pennsylvania] General Assembly, I saw in real time the rapid growth in the employ of artificial intelligence in health care,” Pennsylvania Democratic Representative Arvind Venkat said in a speech statement announcement of the act. Venkat is an emergency medicine physician in Pittsburgh.
Venkat he said that while artificial intelligence has made administrative tasks more effective for doctors like him, he is concerned about its increasing employ in making decisions about patient care and whether health services are covered by insurance.
Only this year a dozen states According to Manatt Health, a national health services company, they have passed legislation to regulate artificial intelligence in health care.
Arizona, Maryland, Nebraska AND Texas they currently prohibit insurance companies from using AI as the sole decision maker when it comes to denying prior authorization or denying medical necessity. Nevada AND Oregon prohibit AI from presenting itself as a health care provider, while several other countries including Utah AND New York — regulated the employ of artificial intelligence-enabled chatbots in mental health treatment.
The state’s artificial intelligence legislation was sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans and was approved with bipartisan support, reflecting broad concerns about its expanding employ in health care.
That’s what Pennsylvania lawmakers say their proposed legislation would force insurers and healthcare providers to be lucid about how they employ AI; require a human to make the final decision every time AI is used, and require insurers and providers to provide evidence that minimizes bias in the employ of AI.
“As the use of artificial intelligence increases in the healthcare industry, we have already seen evidence that the use of artificial intelligence can reinforce bias and discrimination,” Venkat said in statement. “This will allow us to ensure that insurers, physicians and hospitals are effectively using AI and not using it to perpetuate potentially harmful biases in the medical field.”
More than half of American patients say that artificial intelligence is effective in health needs more supervision– according to an August survey conducted by United States of Care, a nonprofit organization focusing on affordable and accessible health care. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of physicians reported an augment in the employ of AI for administrative tasks such as recording and managing patient information, and almost half reported increased employ of AI in patient care and clinical decision-making.
National organizations, including the American Medical Association, have also done so called for greater supervision artificial intelligence. Last year, doctors used artificial intelligence more than double– according to the latest data from the association.
Stateline reporter Anna Claire Vollers can be reached at: avollers@stateline.org
This story was originally produced by Statisticswhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes Pennsylvania Capital-Star, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
