Episode Details

California awaits governor's action on AI practice bills; WISeR vendor under corrective plan; 72% of health systems report unsanctioned AI; Conifer cuts 1,037 billing jobs

The voices on this episode are generated, and so is the script, from the day's post at Physician in the Loop. Every fact in the post links to its source.

Read the post and its sources

California's governor has until Sept. 30 to act on Assembly Bill 1979, which would bar artificial intelligence (AI) from independently performing work that requires a licensed professional or directing unlicensed staff to do it. The bill applies to health facilities, clinics and physician offices; under its terms, an AI system could not direct medical assistants or other unlicensed personnel to carry out licensed duties. Its companion, AB 2575, would protect clinicians who override an AI system and bar developers from blaming those clinicians when the system fails.

The WISeR records, the Waystar sale process and the ACCESS expansion had been covered in the baseline report. The fuller WISeR records show one vendor under a corrective action plan and a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plan that considered extending AI prior authorization to MRI, cancer treatment and air ambulance, according to Fierce Healthcare and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). An Imprivata survey of 250 health system leaders found 72% have AI tools deployed without formal IT approval. Tenet's billing subsidiary is cutting 1,037 jobs, Healthcare Dive reported, and Tenet's chief executive has pointed to AI and offshoring. Waystar has hired Evercore to explore a sale, Reuters reported.

In this episode

• California AB 1979, barring AI from independently performing licensed clinical work, and companion AB 2575 await governor's action by Sept. 30
• WISeR records show Virtix under corrective action plan and a CMS plan that considered AI prior auth for MRI, cancer treatment and air ambulance
• Imprivata survey: 72% of 250 health system leaders report AI tools or agents deployed without formal IT approval; 28% have agentic AI in production
• Advocate Health pauses nursing ambient rollout; CIO says AI raises total health care costs; Penn Medicine cites about 30% pharmacy prior auth gains
• Knowtex opens health care AI lab, citing its own figures of 79 VA medical centers, 7,000 clinicians and 450,000 documentation hours saved
• Tenet's Conifer to cut 1,037 billing jobs by Nov. 2; WARN notice cites restructuring and technology initiatives, CEO has pointed to AI and offshoring
• Seven health system leaders tell Becker's autonomous AI needs narrow use cases, named accountability, escalation paths and developer liability