California moves to ensure doctors aren’t bound by AI | Bills and Laws

The skinny

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a new law that is designed to ensure doctors can use their own judgment as health systems increasingly expand the use of AI in patient care.

Summary

On Sept. 30, Newsom signed legislation (AB 1979) that ensures that doctors and other healthcare professionals are allowed to use their own professional discernment with systems that are using AI tools offering recommended medications and treatments.

The legislation is slated to take effect on Jan. 1, 2027.

• Read more: AI over doctors? Medical societies push back.

Details

Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Oakland, sponsored the legislation.

The legislation states, “A health facility, clinic, physician’s office, or office of a group practice shall take reasonable steps to ensure that a licensed health care provider, acting within their scope of practice, retains the ability to exercise independent professional judgment in their care of a patient whenever that care is informed by the output of a clinical decision support system.”

In addition, the law also offers a definition of a “clinical decision support system.”

The legislation covers any AI system “that produces a prediction, classification, recommendation, evaluation, or analysis that aids clinical decisionmaking related to timing of care, diagnosis, or treatment.”

Bonta said the goal of the new law is to ensure doctors are able to make their own choices.

"Technology should not replace human decision-making in health care,” Bonta said in a statement. “AI is rapidly integrating into our health care system and reshaping our personal experience with it. Protecting patient safety, keeping our professional workforce engaged, and preserving the integrity of health care requires that we not rely exclusively on AI to do things quicker and cheaper.”

Under the legislation, licensing boards would be authorized to pursue injunctions or restraining orders if they determine violations have been made.

The new law also bars health facilities and clinics from using any AI tool to “independently perform any clinical function that is required by law to be performed by a person with a professional license.”

Support

The California Nurses Association backed the legislation. Sandy Reding, RN and president of California Nurses Association, called the new law historic.

“Nurses won this fight the way we win every fight: Together,” Reding said in a statement after Newsom signed the bill. “We stood up and said that A.I. must support, not replace, the clinical judgement of the nurses and other health care professionals who care for our patients.”

The California Hospital Association was neutral on the bill, The Mercury News reported. A hospital association spokesperson told The Mercury News that clinicians should retain the final authority in making decisions on patient care.

Reactions

While applauding Newsom for signing the law ensuring that doctors and nurses can use their own judgment, the California Nurses Association criticized the governor for vetoing another AI bill.

Newsom vetoed a separate bill (AB 2575) that supporters say would have protected nurses and other healthcare workers from retaliation for using their own judgment and not following AI guidance that could be unsafe.

"The governor knows A.I. should never replace a nurse's clinical judgment, but he vetoed the bill that would have protected us for using our judgment," Reding said in a statement. "That makes no sense to any nurse at the bedside.”

Newsom said he commended the intent of protecting patients, but he said he vetoed the legislation because it wouldn’t protect clinicians as intended and it would tie the hands of regulators in determining violations.

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