Written Testimony in Support of Prohibition on the Use of Artificial Intelligence in Adverse Decisions to a Patient Concerning Medical Necessity

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Commerce and Consumer Protection Conference Committee
May 12, 2026

Dear Members of the Commerce and Consumer Protection Conference Committee:

We write in support of the prohibition by utilization review organizations of the use of artificial intelligence in adverse healthcare determinations without review by an appropriate health professional, which is found in the Senate language in the Health Insurance side-by-side at Lines: 18.21-19.17.

Healthcare by algorithm is wrong. It depersonalizes the human-centered care that all have the right to receive. Human beings are more than the sum total of data points and no AI tool can capture the fullness of a patient’s profile.

To be sure, artificial intelligence seems to hold immense potential in a variety of applications in the medical field, especially in assisting the diagnostic work of healthcare providers. And this bill allows for that innovation while limiting itself only to adverse determinations that occur without clinician review.

Still, it is important to note that AI tools are not making decisions but merely measuring probabilities through sophisticated tubes and wiring. Artificial intelligence is not omniscient or omnipotent. It is far from perfect. It has limitations and biases, not all of which can be manipulated at will by programmers.

A recent Vatican document, Antiqua et Nova, about the ethical uses of artificial intelligence states, “Responsibility for the well-being of patients and the decisions that touch upon their lives are at the heart of the healthcare profession. This accountability requires medical professionals to exercise all their skill and intelligence in making well-reasoned and ethically grounded choices regarding those entrusted to their care, always respecting the inviolable dignity of the patients and the need for informed consent. As a result, decisions regarding patient treatment and the weight of responsibility they entail must always remain with the human person and should never be delegated to AI.”

The document, approved by the late Pope Francis, goes on to condemn the use of AI to determine who should receive treatment based predominantly on economic measures or metrics of efficiency. Artificial intelligence tools in healthcare, it states, are “exposed to forms of bias and discrimination,” where “systemic errors can easily multiply, producing not only injustices in individual cases but also, due to the domino effect, real forms of social inequality.”

Decisions about whether to provide care should be made by human beings, not probabilities based on the sophisticated calculation of impersonal data. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully yours,

Jason Adkins
Executive Director
[email protected]