AI Compliance for 🏥 Healthcare in Maryland

What this means for Healthcare in Maryland

Healthcare companies in Maryland are navigating the intersection of two accelerating trends: the rapid integration of AI tools into clinical diagnostics, patient triage, billing automation, and care coordination, and a growing body of state law that places direct obligations on businesses that deploy these systems. Whether you assist clinicians with diagnostic recommendations or automate prior-authorization decisions, the regulatory landscape in Maryland has concrete implications for how your business must operate today.

While Maryland does not yet have a dedicated AI law in effect, healthcare businesses operating here are not without compliance obligations. Federal statutes — including HIPAA and the ADA — apply regardless of state law status. If your business serves customers in states with active AI laws, those laws may also reach your operations. Maryland has not enacted a comprehensive private-sector AI law. The Artificial Intelligence Governance Act of 2024 (SB 818) directs the Department of Information Technology to set policies for and inventory AI used by state-government units, but imposes no direct private-sector compliance duty. Existing anti-discrimination and consumer-protection laws may apply to AI-driven decisions.

Within the healthcare sector, AI systems commonly scrutinized by regulators include clinical decision support tools, AI-powered billing and coding software, patient-facing chatbots, and diagnostic imaging algorithms. MD regulators have called out AI-assisted diagnosis and automated insurance authorization as areas of elevated concern under No comprehensive private-sector AI law. Importantly, these requirements apply regardless of whether a business built the AI system internally or purchased it from a third-party vendor — organizations that deploy AI bear compliance responsibility for the systems they use.

The sector risk classification for Healthcare is Very High, reflecting the reality that AI decisions in healthcare carry direct health consequences, involve protected health information, and are held to the highest accountability standard by regulators. HIPAA applies to AI processing patient data. States mandate disclosures when AI assists diagnosis, billing, or scheduling. In Maryland, businesses that process patient health records, diagnostic imaging data, and insurance claims through automated decision systems face the greatest exposure. The law's scope, however, typically captures a broad range of operators — not just large incumbents — so smaller healthcare businesses should not assume they are below the regulatory threshold.

The most effective starting point for healthcare businesses in Maryland is an AI inventory: a documented list of every AI system in use, the decisions it influences, and whether those decisions affect individuals in ways the law covers. From there, companies typically need written disclosure notices, a designated internal owner for AI compliance, and a regular review cadence to track the technology and regulatory landscape as both continue to evolve. Disclosure and documentation requirements are often achievable in a matter of weeks; technical controls around bias testing and impact assessment require longer runway. Given Maryland's deadline of N/A, the time to begin is now.

Maryland Healthcare deep dive

By company size

Anchored to the primary government source (statute, bill text, or agency rule) and verified directly against it · Last verified Jul 4, 2026. See our methodology.

• ↗mgaleg.maryland.govhttps://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Legislation/Details/SB0818?ys=2024RS