The Utah Medical Licensing Board (UMLB) is advocating for a suspension of the state’s artificial intelligence prescription refill pilot, highlighting major concerns over patient safety and the necessity of physician-led care.
In a formal letter to state officials, the medical board emphasized that supervising prescription renewals is a complex clinical task that must be strictly reserved for properly licensed medical practitioners. Members of the board expressed frustration that they were not consulted before the program launched, arguing that the automated system essentially allows AI to practice medicine without a license. Dr. Alan Smith, chair of the Medical Licensing Board, voiced extreme anxiety regarding the lack of direct patient encounters, warning, “I’m just very afraid that nothing’s going to happen until we have some deaths.”
Physicians for Patient Protection supports the UMLB for standing up for safety and putting patients ahead of profits.
Despite these stark warnings from medical experts, the Utah Department of Commerce and its Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy dismissed the board’s concerns as misperceptions and refused to halt the program.
State officials defended the initiative by highlighting its current phase, where a licensed physician still reviews every individual automated decision before it reaches a pharmacy. However, legal and medical experts caution that bypassing traditional regulatory guardrails and sidelining highly-trained physician oversight places corporate interests ahead of patient safety.
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