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Utah Launches First State‑Authorized AI for Autonomous Prescription Renewals

The tightly scoped pilot runs under a one-year regulatory sandbox with staged physician oversight.

Overview

  • The pilot covers roughly 190 commonly prescribed medications for chronic conditions, excluding pain-management, ADHD drugs and injectables.
  • Safety guardrails require physician review of the first 250 renewals per medication category, ongoing 10% spot checks, and automatic escalation of uncertain cases to doctors.
  • Doctronic reports 99.2% concordance with clinician decisions and carries malpractice coverage, and patients currently pay a $4 renewal fee.
  • Utah’s Office of Artificial Intelligence Policy will evaluate refill timeliness, adherence, patient access and satisfaction, safety outcomes, workflow efficiency and cost over the yearlong trial.
  • Federal oversight remains unsettled as the FDA has not taken a public position, while the AMA and watchdog Public Citizen warn of patient risks without human clinician involvement.