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Utah lists one active AI health pilot, two still waiting

ByDental Info

Utah’s new healthcare AI agreements cover acne treatment, pelvic-floor therapy and prescription refills, but only Nolla Health’s pilot was active as of Oct. 7.

Utah’s healthcare AI sandbox had one active company pilot and two that had not started as of Oct. 7, according to the state’s public register. The Utah Department of Commerce announced the healthcare expansion on Oct. 5, including five regulatory mitigation agreements and six agreements with outside evaluator organizations.

The five mitigation agreements consist of master agreements with University of Utah Health and Intermountain Health, plus company-specific agreements with Nolla Health, Expect Fitness and August AI. They allow only specified activities under limited regulatory relief; they are not general licensing exemptions or state endorsements of the products. The agreements were signed on different dates: Nolla’s was signed Sept. 22, while Expect Fitness and August AI signed Oct. 2.

Three company pilots have different limits

Nolla’s agreement covers photo-based assessment and specified topical treatments for Utah adults with mild-to-moderate acne. The register lists its pilot as active from Oct. 5, 2026, through Oct. 5, 2027. Initially, two Utah-licensed physicians must review each prescription before it is sent. A move to later phases with less pre-review requires written state approval. The pilot excludes severe acne, oral acne medication and isotretinoin.

Expect Fitness’s agreement concerns online pelvic-floor physical therapy for adult women. Its demonstration period had not started as of Oct. 7. When it begins, a licensed physical therapist must initially review and approve every care plan. Later phases require written approval, higher-risk patients remain subject to full review, and an adverse event returns the system to full review.

August AI’s agreement is limited to routine refills of existing prescriptions for non-controlled medications on a specified list. It does not cover new prescriptions, dose changes or substitutions, and its demonstration period also had not started as of Oct. 7. Under the agreement, a Utah-licensed provider reviews the first 250 refills before they reach patients, then reviews the next 1,000 after they reach patients. A later phase calls for review of at least 5% of refills in each medication class. Each phase requires written state approval.

The state says participating organizations must provide clear disclosures to patients about AI, carry specialty medical-malpractice insurance and maintain incident-response plans. The register calls for adverse-event reporting within 24 hours for the Nolla and August AI pilots.

Health-system agreements do not start pilots

The University of Utah Health and Intermountain Health agreements set terms for possible future pilots but approve no testing on their own. The state register listed no pilots approved under either agreement; each would need a separate written addendum before a pilot could begin.

The six evaluator agreements have different functions: three organizations are listed for clinical and technical evaluation, Coalition for Health AI for an evaluator network, and Clarion AI Partners and Glacis Technologies for runtime attestation. Utah says evaluation criteria are still being finalized. Companies pay evaluators directly, while the state does not pay for evaluations. An attestation receipt shows that a specified check ran; it does not establish that an AI system is safe.

Utah says pilot data will be shared with the Legislature and the public to inform possible future regulation. Supporters cited possible gains in access, lower costs and help with provider capacity, but those are anticipated benefits, not reported results. The agreements set conditions for limited testing; they do not establish how many patients will use the services or what clinical outcomes they will produce.

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