California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services opposing a proposed rule that would eliminate model card requirements for AI tools in healthcare, warning that such rollbacks could lead to biased and unsafe healthcare decisions by reducing transparency.
In-house legal teams should review vendor agreements with healthcare AI software developers and customer agreements with healthcare providers deploying AI tools. Focus on clauses governing AI tool certification, transparency documentation (e.g., model cards), bias testing requirements, and data usage disclosures. Given the proposed federal rollback, contracts may need amendments to explicitly mandate model card provisions, require regular bias audits, and ensure compliance with state-level transparency standards to mitigate risks of unsafe or discriminatory healthcare decisions.
Entity
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Also known as: Department of Health and Human Services
Industry
OtherOfficial Press Release
https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-opposes-trump-administration%E2%80%99s-proposed-slashing
CA AGO ONC Model Card Letter 02.27.26
https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/CA%20AGO_ONC%20Model%20Card%20Letter_02.27.26.pdf
California Attorney General Enforcement Page
https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/privacy-enforcement-actions
"U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)"
"The Affordable Care Act"
"California law"
"New and emerging AI tools are used by many healthcare providers to make life-changing decisions, such as which patients to refer to specialists, which diseases to screen a patient for, or whether a reaction to an infection might be deadly."
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones joined a multistate coalition submitting a comment letter opposing HHS’s proposed changes to Head Start standards. The release describes concerns about proposed reductions to requirements for child safety, staffing, health services, and other program protections; it reports no privacy enforcement action or penalty.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser joined a multistate coalition in a comment letter opposing HHS’s proposed cuts to Head Start standards. The letter argues the changes could reduce protections and services for children and families; it is an advocacy action, not an enforcement action imposing a penalty or remedy.
Attorney General Weiser joined a coalition of attorneys general in suing to block new unlawful conditions on Title X funding imposed by HHS, which would penalize states and providers that refuse to abandon nondiscrimination initiatives or conform to the administration's ideological vision of family planning. The lawsuit argues the conditions conflict with federal law, violate the Administrative Procedure Act, and are unconstitutionally vague.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alongside attorneys general from New York, Colorado, Illinois, and Minnesota, filed a motion for preliminary injunction to continue blocking the Trump Administration's unlawful freeze of $10 billion in federal funding for child care and family assistance programs and to prevent broad data requests for personally identifiable information of millions of residents. The funding freeze targets five Democratic-led states without evidence of fraud, and the data requests are part of the challenged unlawful actions. A temporary restraining order was previously granted blocking these measures.
Civil rights and health enforcement action where Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, joined by 11 other states, sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) over a policy that conditions federal health, education, and research funding on states' agreement to discriminate
Governor Newsom signed the Expanding Privacy Rights Act (SB 923), expanding CCPA deletion rights to cover personal information obtained from third parties and requiring online-only businesses to offer an online method for submitting privacy requests. The law takes effect January 1, 2027, and allows businesses to maintain suppression lists to help keep deleted information from being reacquired.