AI, Healthcare, and Ohio Law

When congress declined to implement a provision that would have prohibited states from regulating AI for the next ten years in their recently passed "big beautiful bill"; that left Ohio free to come up with regulations that our own legislators believe will protect the state's residents from harm stemming from the use of this new and rapidly evolving technology. Right now, there is a bill (SB-164) pending in the Ohio Senate, that would regulate the use of AI in the health insurance industry; something that came into sharp focus in recent months after a federal class action wrongful death lawsuit was filed alleging that UHG, UnitedHealthcare and naviHealth used an AI model with faulty programming, without customers knowledge, to reject 90 percent of to evaluate claims for post-acute care insurance claims. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the estates of two patients, who died, it is alleged, as a result. But AI is being used by healthcare providers as well, for tasks like medical transcription, and diagnosing cancer, and there are no regulations on that either. So  now, some legislators are drafting a companion bill in the Ohio House, and they are relying in part, on some information compiled by a couple of undergraduate college students at Case Western Reserve University. Listen now, as I talk with Political Science & Psychology Major, Sabrina Soto, and Paisley Martin-Tuell, who is studying Economics and Public Policy, about the complex issues involved, and how their recommendations mirror regulations either already passed, or under consideration, in other states.