HIMSS advocates for consistent nationwide AI regulation - MobiHealthNews
So HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, having watched the healthcare sector become a patchwork of state-level AI regulations, has decided the best way to handle that is to publish public policy principles calling for 'consistent nationwide AI regulation.' The organization's 40-page document recommends guardrails to keep AI 'safe and trustworthy' while warning that inconsistent state laws create 'complications for developers' – a phrase so wonderfully corporate it could have been lifted from a Big Pharma lobbying brief. One can almost hear the weary sighs from compliance departments as they contemplate navigating 50 different sets of rules for medical AI systems.
Of course, HIMSS is careful to frame this as a patient safety issue, not a developer convenience one. Their principles advocate for 'risk-based approaches' and 'transparency requirements' – all perfectly reasonable suggestions that will be immediately ignored by any legislator facing re-election. The document arrives just as the federal government is developing its own preemption-heavy AI law, creating the delightful prospect of two overlapping 'consistent' frameworks that will somehow make everything even less consistent. The healthcare sector, already struggling with HIPAA compliance and insurance coding, now gets to add 'AI regulatory arbitrage' to its list of administrative burdens.
What's particularly amusing is the timing – this comes after multiple states have already passed their own healthcare AI laws, creating exactly the patchwork HIMSS now laments. The organization's earnest call for national consistency feels like someone arriving at a house fire with a politely worded memo about fire prevention best practices. The real question isn't whether we need consistent regulation, but whether any regulation can keep pace with AI systems that evolve faster than congressional committee schedules. HIMSS might as well be advocating for consistent weather.