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Utah moves toward AI prescriptions without doctors’ approval October 20, 2026 · 2:54 · Health explained · With Maya and Grace
I’m Maya, and Grace is our columnist for health and medicine. Thanks for listening.
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Maya Welcome to Slow English FM. This is Health Explained, where we look at health issues and what they mean in everyday life. I’m Maya, and Grace is our columnist for health and medicine. Thanks for listening. Maya Utah has authorized a one-year pilot that lets Nolla Health use artificial intelligence to recommend acne medication and send prescriptions to pharmacies. Grace, how will the doctor reviews work? Grace They will change in stages. For the first 100 patients, a physician must review each prescription before it goes to a pharmacy. For the next 400, the AI sends the prescriptions, and a physician reviews them each week afterward. After that, a physician must review at least 10 percent of prescriptions each month. Maya So in the later stages, some prescriptions can reach a pharmacy before a doctor checks them. What does the monthly review mean for patients? Grace A physician still has a review role. The pilot moves from checking every prescription in advance to checking a smaller share afterward. Maya What treatments can the AI prescribe in this pilot, and what did Utah change to allow it? Grace The pilot is limited to acne treatments applied to the skin. The Los Angeles Times reports that Utah waived its rule requiring a prescriber to be a licensed physician for this pilot. A state official called it a narrow exception. Maya This is not Utah’s first AI health pilot. What happened with the earlier one? Grace An earlier pilot by Doctronic drew criticism from the Utah Medical Licensing Board. The board said it had not been consulted and that the program put Utah residents at risk. The state did not stop the pilot. Instead, after consulting the board, it removed two medications from Doctronic’s approved list. Maya And what is the time frame for Nolla Health’s pilot? Grace It is authorized for one year. The state office that approved it may renew it for up to two more years. For patients, the key question is how the staged reviews work in practice: first every prescription is checked in advance, then some prescriptions are checked afterward, and later only at least one in ten must be reviewed each month. Maya That was Health Explained on Slow English FM. I’m Maya. Thanks for listening, and stay with Slow English FM.
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