California Health Care Services: Artificial Intelligence Act (SB 503, clinical decision support bias)

Properties

jurisdiction: US, California
level: state
domain: sectoral
status: enacted-pending
scope: Applies to developers and deployers of clinical decision support systems (AI systems that aid health care decisions about diagnosis or treatment) used in California health programs.
obligations: Developers must identify reasonably foreseeable risks of biased impacts, document intended uses and known risks, and make reasonable efforts to mitigate bias. Deployers must regularly monitor these systems and implement reasonable and proportionate steps to mitigate known or reasonably foreseeable risk of biased impacts. Builds on existing requirements that AI-generated patient communications carry disclaimers and human-provider contact information.
enactedDate: 2026-09-30
appliesTo: developers and deployers of clinical decision support systems used in California health programs
officialUrl: https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/californias-nation-leading-ai-framework-just-got-stronger-governor-newsom-signs-more-first-in-the-nation-worker-protections-and-more/
notes: Signed by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2026: the Governor's own AI signing release lists SB 503 (Akilah Weber Pierson, Healthcare services: artificial intelligence) and says it ensures doctors and licensed providers can use their own professional judgment when AI clinical tools are involved. Chapter 857, Statutes of 2026 and the bias-mitigation duties on clinical decision support developers and deployers come from the CalMatters Digital Democracy aggregator only (leginfo returned 403; bill text not seen). Operative date and penalties not confirmed, so effectiveDate and penalties are null and status follows the enacted-pending convention. Distinct from ca-ab489-health-ai-deceptive-terms and ca-ab1979-health-ai-chatbots-cmia.

Properties

jurisdiction

US, California

level

state

domain

sectoral

status

enacted-pending

scope

Applies to developers and deployers of clinical decision support systems (AI systems that aid health care decisions about diagnosis or treatment) used in California health programs.

obligations

Developers must identify reasonably foreseeable risks of biased impacts, document intended uses and known risks, and make reasonable efforts to mitigate bias. Deployers must regularly monitor these systems and implement reasonable and proportionate steps to mitigate known or reasonably foreseeable risk of biased impacts. Builds on existing requirements that AI-generated patient communications carry disclaimers and human-provider contact information.

enactedDate

2026-09-30

appliesTo

developers and deployers of clinical decision support systems used in California health programs

officialUrl

https://www.gov.ca.gov/2026/09/30/californias-nation-leading-ai-framework-just-got-stronger-governor-newsom-signs-more-first-in-the-nation-worker-protections-and-more/

notes

Signed by Governor Newsom on September 30, 2026: the Governor's own AI signing release lists SB 503 (Akilah Weber Pierson, Healthcare services: artificial intelligence) and says it ensures doctors and licensed providers can use their own professional judgment when AI clinical tools are involved. Chapter 857, Statutes of 2026 and the bias-mitigation duties on clinical decision support developers and deployers come from the CalMatters Digital Democracy aggregator only (leginfo returned 403; bill text not seen). Operative date and penalties not confirmed, so effectiveDate and penalties are null and status follows the enacted-pending convention. Distinct from ca-ab489-health-ai-deceptive-terms and ca-ab1979-health-ai-chatbots-cmia.