|
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 23, 2026 |
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
April 09, 2026 |
|
Amended
IN
Assembly
March 18, 2026 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE—
2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 2575
| Introduced by Assembly Member Ortega |
February 20, 2026 |
An act to add Section 1714.48 to the Civil Code, to add Section 1339.76 to the Health and Safety Code, and to add Article 2.7 (commencing with Section 2820) to Chapter 2 of Division 3 of the Labor Code, relating to health care services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2575, as amended, Ortega.
Health care services: artificial intelligence.
(1) Existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health facilities and clinics by the State Department of Public Health. Existing law generally makes a violation of these provisions a crime. Existing law, the Medical Practice Act, establishes the Medical Board of California for the licensing, regulation, and discipline of physicians and surgeons. Existing law requires a health facility, clinic, physician’s office, or office of a group practice that uses generative artificial intelligence to generate written or verbal patient communications pertaining to patient clinical information, as defined, to ensure that those communications include both a disclaimer that indicates to the patient that a communication was generated by generative artificial intelligence, as specified, and clear instructions describing how a patient may contact a human health care
provider, employee, or other appropriate person.
This bill would require a health facility, clinic, physician’s office, or office of a group practice that uses or deploys a covered tool, clinical decision support system, as defined, for patient care to provide written notice of required information to any licensed health care professional or other person using a covered tool clinical decision support system or viewing outputs from a covered tool.
clinical decision support system. The bill would require, among other things, the disclosure to include a notice that a worker providing direct patient care is permitted authorized to override the output of a covered tool clinical decision support system if, in the judgment of the worker acting in within their scope of practice, an override is appropriate for the patient, or as necessary to comply with applicable law, including civil rights law.
necessary to meet the applicable standard of care or comply with applicable law. The bill would specify the required time and manner the disclosure is to be provided pursuant to these provisions. By placing new requirements on health facilities and clinics, this bill would expand the scope of a crime and would impose a state-mandated local program.
(2) Existing law charges the Labor Commissioner with enforcement of various labor laws, including investigation of employee complaints.
This bill would declare it is the policy of the state that a worker providing direct patient care be free to use their professional judgment to make assessments and decisions within their scope of practice as appropriate for their patients and that it is public policy of the state that a worker should not be penalized for relying in good faith on technology that the licensed health care professional’s employer has selected or approved for their use in patient care.
patients. The bill would prohibit an employer from using or deploying technology to replace or eliminate a worker’s use of professional judgment in patient care and would prohibit an employer from retaliating or discriminating against a worker providing patient care, as specified. The bill would authorize a worker who is subject to retaliation or discrimination in violation of these provisions to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner against an employer.
(3) Existing law provides that everyone is responsible not only for the result of their willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by their want of ordinary care or skill in the management of their property or person. Existing law prohibits a defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence, as defined, from asserting a defense that the
artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm to the plaintiff.
This bill would prohibit a defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence or selected, or deployed a clinical decision support system, as those terms are defined, system that is alleged to have harmed the plaintiff from asserting a defense that the failure of a licensed health care professional or other health care worker to override an output of the artificial intelligence or clinical decision support system is a
superseding cause severing the defendant’s liability for the alleged harm.
(4) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
Section 1714.48 is added to the Civil Code, to read:1714.48.
(a) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:(1) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
(2)“Clinical decision support system” means a computerized system or tool that does both of the following:
(A)Supports decisionmaking related to patient care based on algorithms, or models, based in
clinical practice guidelines or that derive relationships from training data, including algorithms or models that are developed using unsupervised learning models.
(B)Produces an output that results in a prediction, classification, recommendation, evaluation, or analysis.
(2) (A) “Automated decision system” means a computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons.
(B) “Automated decision system” does not include a spam email filter, firewall, antivirus software, identity and access management tools, calculator, database, dataset, or other compilation of data.
(3) “Clinical decision support system” means an automated decision system or generative artificial intelligence system whose outputs are used to inform clinical decisionmaking with respect to the provision, timing, or course of patient care.
(4) “Generative artificial intelligence” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1339.75 of the Healthy and Safety Code.
(b) In an action against a defendant who developed, modified, selected, or deployed artificial intelligence or
a clinical decision support system that is alleged to have caused harm to the plaintiff, it shall not be a defense, and the defendant may not assert, that the failure of a licensed health care professional or other health care worker to override an output of the artificial intelligence or
clinical decision support system is a superseding cause severing the defendant’s liability for the alleged harm.
(c) This section does not limit or preclude a defendant from presenting either of the following:
(1) Any other affirmative defense, including evidence relevant to causation or foreseeability.
(2) Other evidence relevant to the comparative fault of any other person or entity.
SEC. 2.
Section 1339.76 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to read:1339.76.
(a) A health facility, clinic, physician’s office, or office of a group practice that uses or deploys a(b) Required information under subdivision (a) shall include all of the following:
(1) Details on the covered tool, including developer, funding source, any foundation model used, clinical decision support system, including developer and description of output.
(2) Intended use of the covered tool, clinical decision support system,
including intended patient population, intended users, and intended decisionmaking role.
(3) Cautioned out-of-scope use of the covered tool, clinical decision support system, including known risks and limitations.
(4) List of the inputs into the covered tool. clinical decision support system.
(5) Description of how the covered tool
clinical decision support system generates outputs.
(6) Development details of the covered tool, clinical decision support system including, but not limited to, all of the following:
(A) Description of the training set or clinical research underlying recommendations, including demographic representativeness and known biases based on protected characteristics.
(B) Description of the relevance of training data to deployed setting.
(C) Process used to ensure
fairness in development of the intervention.
(7) Description of the validation process.
(8) Qualitative measures of performance.
(9) Description of ongoing maintenance of intervention implementation and use.
(10) Description of updates and continued validation or fairness assessment process.
(11)Notice that health care entities and developers may be liable for harm that results from the use of artificial intelligence in patient care.
(12)
(11) Notice that a worker providing direct patient care is permitted to may override the output of a covered tool clinical decision support system if, in the independent professional judgment of the worker acting in
within their scope of practice, such an the override is appropriate for the patient, or as necessary to necessary to meet the applicable standard of care or comply with applicable law, including civil rights law. law.
(c) (1)A
disclosure made pursuant to this section shall be provided consistent with all of the following:
(A)
(1) To a new licensed health care professional or other person upon hire, onboarding, or credentialing, if that individual will likely use the covered tool clinical decision support system or view outputs from the covered tool.
clinical decision support system.
(B)
(2) At least 90 days before a new covered tool clinical decision support system is first deployed for patient care.
(C)
(3) At least 90 days before a material change in the use, function, intended users, intended patient population, or decisionmaking role of an existing covered tool. clinical decision support system.
(D)
(4) On or before February 1, 2028, and annually thereafter, by providing an updated inventory of all covered tools
clinical decision support systems currently in use or deployed for patient care.
(2)The disclosure shall be provided in plain language to, and linked in the health record of, any patient whose care
may be
affected by the output of the covered tool or whose health information may be used as an input to the covered tool.
(3)The disclosure shall be provided with ample time for the licensed health care professional or other person to review and make reasoned decisions based on their professional judgment on whether and how to use the covered tool.
(d) (1) A violation of this section by a licensed health facility is subject to the enforcement mechanisms described in Article 4 (commencing with Section 1290) of Chapter 2.
(2) A violation of this section by a licensed clinic is subject to the enforcement
mechanisms described in Article 4 (commencing with Section 1235) of Chapter 1.
(3) A violation of this section by a physician is subject to the jurisdiction of the Medical Board of California or the Osteopathic Medical Board of California, as appropriate.
(4) A violation of this section constitutes “unfair competition” as defined in Section 17200 of the Business and Professions Code and is punishable as prescribed in Chapter 5 (commencing with
Section 17200) of Part 2 of Division 7 of the Business and Professions Code.
(e) For purposes of this section, the following definitions shall apply:
(1) “Artificial intelligence” has the same meaning as in Section 1339.75.
(2) (A) “Automated decision system” means a computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons.
(B) “Automated decision system” does not include a spam email filter, firewall, antivirus software, identity and access management tools, calculator, database, dataset, or other compilation of data.
(2)
(3) “Clinic” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1200.
(3)“Clinical decision support system” means a computerized system or tool that does both of the following:
(A)Supports decisionmaking related to patient care based on algorithms, or models, based in clinical practice guidelines or that derive relationships from training data, including such algorithms or models that are developed using unsupervised learning models.
(B)Produces an output that results in a prediction, classification, recommendation, evaluation, or analysis.
(4)“Covered tool” means a tool, system, or device that includes artificial intelligence or a
clinical decision support system.
(4) “Clinical decision support system” means an automated decision system or generative artificial intelligence system whose outputs are used to inform clinical decisionmaking with respect to the provision, timing, or course of patient care.
(5) “Generative artificial intelligence” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1339.75.
(5)
(6) “Health facility” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1250.
(6)
(7) “Office of a group practice” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1339.75.
(7)“Patient clinical information” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1339.75.
(8) “Physician’s office” has the same meaning as defined in Section
1339.75.
SEC. 3.
Article 2.7 (commencing with Section 2820) is added to Chapter 2 of Division 3 of the Labor Code, to read:Article 2.7. Health Information Technology: Worker Rights
2820.
For the purposes of this article, the following definitions shall apply:(a) “Artificial intelligence” means an engineered or machine-based system that varies in its level of autonomy and that can, for explicit or implicit objectives, infer from the input it receives how to generate outputs that can influence physical or virtual environments.
(b)“Clinical decision support system” means a computerized system or tool that does both of the following:
(1)Supports decisionmaking related to patient care based on algorithms, or models, based in clinical practice guidelines or that derive relationships from training data, including such algorithms or models that are developed using unsupervised learning models.
(2)Produces an output that results in a prediction, classification, recommendation, evaluation, or analysis.
(c)“Technology” means scientific hardware or software, including artificial intelligence and clinical decision support systems, used to achieve a medical or nursing care objective at a health
facility.
(b) (1) “Automated decision system” means a computational process derived from machine learning, statistical modeling, data analytics, or artificial intelligence that issues simplified output, including a score, classification, or recommendation, that is used to assist or replace human discretionary decisionmaking and materially impacts natural persons.
(2) “Automated decision system” does not include a spam email filter, firewall, antivirus software, identity and access management tools, calculator, database, dataset, or other compilation of data.
(c) “Clinical decision support system” means an automated decision system or generative artificial intelligence system whose outputs
are used to inform clinical decisionmaking with respect to the provision, timing, or course of patient care.
(d) “Generative artificial intelligence” has the same meaning as defined in Section 1339.75 of the Health and Safety Code.
2821.
(a) It is the public policy of the State of California that a worker providing direct patient care be free to use their professional judgment to make assessments and decisions within their scope of practice as appropriate for their patients.(b)It is the public policy of the State of California that a worker providing direct patient care should not be penalized for relying in good faith on technology that the licensed health care professional’s employer has selected or approved for their use in patient care.
(c)An employer shall not use or deploy technology to replace or limit a worker’s use of professional
judgment in patient care.
(d)
(b) (1) An employer shall not retaliate or discriminate against a worker providing direct patient care based on both of the following:
solely on the worker’s override of, or reliance on, the output of a clinical decision support system.
(1)The worker’s override of, or request to override, the output of technology if, in the judgment of the worker acting in their scope of practice, such an override is appropriate for the patient, or as necessary to comply with applicable law, including civil rights law.
(2)The worker’s compliance with the output of technology if the technology was provided or approved by the worker’s employer for patient care.
(2) This subdivision does not affect a worker’s duty to meet the applicable standard of care, act within their scope of practice, or exercise independent professional judgment in providing direct patient care.
(e)
(c) A worker who is subject to retaliation or discrimination in violation of this article has the right under this article to file a complaint with the Labor Commissioner against an employer who retaliates or discriminates against the worker.