Rhode Island healthcare providers will soon be required to tell patients when ambient artificial intelligence is listening to their appointments and give them a chance to opt out. The state's General Assembly passed the bill on June 11, and Governor Dan McKee is expected to sign it, making Rhode Island among the first states to mandate disclosure and consent for AI scribes in clinical settings.
What the bill requires
Sponsored by Democratic Senator Pamela Lauria and Representative Teresa Tanzi, the legislation requires any healthcare provider using ambient AI to record visits to notify patients and allow them to decline. The Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union and the Senior Agenda Coalition of Rhode Island backed the measure. It passed alongside a 12-bill healthcare package that includes safety guidelines for AI chatbots and mental health applications, signaling a broader effort to regulate AI for Healthcare.
The push to reduce documentation burden
Ambient AI tools capture patient-provider conversations and automatically draft clinical notes for review. Adoption has surged as health systems look to cut the time clinicians spend on paperwork. "Documenting healthcare visits is one of the most important and time-consuming parts of a medical visit for a provider," said Lauria, who works as a primary care nurse practitioner. "Accurate visit documentation ensures continuity of care, accurate billing and provides safeguards against legal action."
But rapid uptake has raised questions about patient awareness. The technology often operates in the background, and many patients may not know it's active. Tanzi said consumer protections must keep pace. "AI scribes and similar tools have the potential to decrease the documentation burden for medical providers and improve the quality of visits for patients," she said. "But as with any rapidly expanding new technology, particularly in a sensitive field like healthcare, it is important to protect patients and transparently disclose when AI scribes are being used."
Patient consent preferences
A survey by data company Verasight and the University of Michigan Medical School found that 54% of 3,000 adults preferred to decide when clinical AI tools are used in their care. That data, cited by lawmakers, supports the need for opt-out rights. Ambient AI tools rely on Speech-To-Text technology to transcribe conversations, and patients may have concerns about how recordings are stored or analyzed.
Physicians see benefits but want oversight
Doctors are using AI more, but trust hasn't kept pace. The American Medical Association reported a 28% increase in physician use of AI tools last year, while enthusiasm rose just 5%. Concerns include privacy risks, errors, and integration with electronic health records. Jesse M. Ehrenfeld, former AMA president, said that "increased oversight ranked as the top regulatory action needed to increase physician confidence and adoption of AI."
Some health systems report tangible gains. Dr. Rob Fields, executive vice president and chief clinical officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health in Massachusetts, said the system's use of AI scribes has reduced documentation burden and changed exam room dynamics. "We needed to refocus on human-centered care while reducing the cognitive load that was driving our workforce away from the bedside," he said.
Why this matters for healthcare professionals
For providers in Rhode Island, the bill means implementing clear disclosure and opt-out processes before an appointment begins. For professionals elsewhere, it signals a regulatory direction: patient consent for clinical AI is moving from a best practice to a legal requirement. Reviewing how your organization communicates about AI tools-and giving patients a real choice-will help stay ahead of similar measures likely to spread to other states.
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