(The Center Square) – Health care patients would have to be told when a facility is using artificial intelligence to make clinical decisions under a bill that got strong bipartisan support Wednesday in passing the Pennsylvania House.The provision was one of many in the wide-ranging bill focused largely on health care and insurance uses of AI and sponsored by Democratic Rep. Arvind Venkat of Allegheny County. Meanwhile, a separate resolution to push back against President Trump’s desire for a moratorium on state-level regulation of AI also got strong bipartisan support.
Venkat, an emergency room physician by training, said AI is the “defining technological advancement of our time.” The bill to regulate its use in health care, he said, would help make sure “AI is being deployed for the public good” and not just for “a small, powerful, and hyper-wealthy elite.”
The bill would, among other things:
Require a health care facility to disclose to patients when AI is used for clinical decision-making.
Require health care facilities using AI in clinical decisions and insurers using it for service reviews to file compliance statements with state government.
Require that any decision to terminate benefits for health care service must involve a review by a human being, and not just rely on AI. Furthermore, a human health care provider cannot be penalized for making a recommendation that contradicts one from AI.
Require that AI used by health care facilities, insurers, and federally funded insurance programs comply with the new law.
