Starting January 1, 2025, California’s Assembly Bill 3030 (AB 3030) requires hospitals, clinics, doctor’s offices, and other licensed health providers using generative AI to tell patients when clinical messages come from AI instead of a human medical professional. This law says that messages made by AI must include clear notices. These notices must say the content was made by AI without review by a professional and tell patients how to contact a human provider if they want more information.
The law covers all AI-made clinical messages sent by phone or electronically. For audio messages like phone calls, the notice must be spoken at the start and end of the message. For written or video messages, the notice should be clearly shown during the message. The law applies only to clinical messages about a patient’s health. It does not apply to administrative messages like appointment scheduling or billing.
This rule helps patients know when AI is involved and makes sure they can easily reach a human provider if needed. Experts say healthcare groups must create rules to manage AI risks while following this and other AI laws.
The California Medical Board and the Osteopathic Medical Board will watch over AB 3030 enforcement. Patients cannot sue providers directly under this law, but providers who do not follow it may face penalties. This puts a big responsibility on healthcare managers and IT staff to make sure AI communications follow the rules.
Providers must update their systems, train staff about the new law, and check if any AI messages have been reviewed by licensed professionals, because those messages do not need AI notices.
These laws try to handle worries about AI bias, wrong information, lack of oversight, and patient privacy. Other states like Colorado (SB 24-205) and Utah (Artificial Intelligence Policy Act) have similar rules about AI transparency and safety in healthcare.
At the federal level, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights expanded protections under the Affordable Care Act. This stops discrimination in AI clinical decisions and demands fairness. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services require clear AI use in Medicare Advantage plans.
These laws show the importance of managing AI in healthcare carefully to protect patients while allowing innovation.
One challenge with AI-made healthcare messages is bias and wrong information. Research shows AI can reflect biases from limited or uneven training data, problems in algorithms, and different clinical methods. These biases can cause wrong or unfair messages that affect patient care.
Doctors and ethicists warn that AI must be made and used with focus on fairness, honesty, and constant checking. Bias can happen in many ways:
For example, AI speech programs have higher error rates for African American speakers than White patients. This can lead to poor or unfair documentation and care. Healthcare groups must watch for this when using AI tools.
Healthcare organizations need systems to keep checking AI for bias and fix problems to avoid harm to vulnerable patients.
AI is being used in healthcare to make work easier for staff and to respond to patients faster. For example, Simbo AI uses AI to answer routine patient calls, schedule appointments, and share information. This helps reduce the work load and gives patients answers any time of day.
But to follow laws like AB 3030, healthcare groups must do more:
Studies of AI scribes that listen and document doctor visits show that clinicians spend 20–30% less time on paperwork after appointments and 29% less time working on records after hours. This can help doctors do more work and reduce burnout.
But AI is not perfect. It can make up information, leave details out, or misunderstand. These problems need human oversight. Front-office AI communication has similar risks that must be managed with quality checks and clear AI disclosures.
Healthcare practice leaders, especially in California, must prepare well for the new AI transparency rules:
California’s laws are among the first. Other states and the federal government may add stricter rules. Healthcare groups should build flexible AI management plans that can adjust to new laws and best practices.
This article aims to explain state rules about transparency for AI-made patient messages. It is a helpful guide for medical practice leaders planning careful and timely AI use in healthcare communication.
AB-3030 is a California law effective January 1, 2025, that mandates healthcare providers using generative AI (GenAI) in patient communications about clinical information to disclose the AI usage. It requires a disclaimer clarifying the communication was AI-generated without professional medical review and instructions for patients to contact providers without AI-generated responses.
Hospitals, clinics, medical groups, and individual licensed health providers using GenAI to generate electronic or phone-based communications about a patient’s clinical information must comply with AB-3030’s disclosure requirements.
All AI-generated communications must include a disclaimer stating the content was produced by GenAI without medical professional review. For video or written interactions, the disclaimer must be displayed prominently throughout. For audio communications, it must be stated verbally at both the start and end of the interaction.
By requiring clear disclaimers on AI-generated clinical communications, AB-3030 informs patients that the content is AI-produced and not directly reviewed by medical staff, empowering patients to seek direct human interaction through specified non-AI channels.
AB-3030 applies only to patient communications involving clinical information related to health status, explicitly excluding administrative matters such as scheduling or billing.
SB 1120, effective early 2025, regulates AI use by health plans and disability insurers during utilization review to ensure fairness and prohibits AI-only clinical determinations, requiring licensed professionals to decide medical necessity. SB 942 requires disclosure of AI-generated content on websites with over one million users.
AB-3030 addresses the risks of misinformation, lack of human oversight, and possible biases or inaccuracies in AI-generated clinical communications by promoting transparency and encouraging patients to verify or seek direct provider contact.
For chat-based or video telehealth sessions using GenAI, AB-3030 mandates continuous prominent display of disclaimers throughout the session, ensuring patients are aware that AI generates some or all responses without a medical professional’s review.
AB-3030 emphasizes the need for governance frameworks to ensure transparency, patient trust, and legal compliance when integrating GenAI, highlighting the balance between innovation and ethical deployment of AI in clinical communication.
AB-3030 is part of state-level efforts alongside laws in Colorado and Utah targeting responsible AI use by healthcare entities, complementing emerging federal guidance focusing on transparency, non-discrimination, and fairness in AI clinical decision-making and communications.
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