Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks at an Motion for Progress occasion about plans to rework behavioral well being, on Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Heather Diehl/Getty Photographs
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Heather Diehl/Getty Photographs
Dr. Mehmet Oz is pitching a controversial repair for America’s rural well being care disaster: synthetic intelligence.
“There is not any query about it — whether or not you need it or not — one of the best ways to assist a few of these communities is gonna be AI-based avatars,” Oz, the top of the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers, stated just lately at an occasion targeted on habit and psychological well being hosted by Motion for Progress, a coalition aimed toward enhancing behavioral well being care. He stated AI may multiply the attain of docs fivefold — or extra — with out burning them out.
The AI proposal is a part of the Trump administration’s $50 billion plan to modernize well being care in rural communities. That features deploying instruments comparable to digital avatars to conduct fundamental medical interviews, robotic programs for distant diagnostics, and drones to ship remedy the place pharmacies do not exist.
Oz even steered changing in-person obstetric care with AI-guided units.
“We will use robots to do ultrasounds on pregnant ladies,” Oz stated. “You are taking a wand, you do not even see the picture—you simply get digitized insights that inform you whether or not the kid’s OK. And albeit, I haven’t got to see the picture. I simply need to know if the picture is sweet sufficient to inform me the kid does not have an issue.”
In a press release to NPR, the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers stated Oz was emphasizing the necessity to “responsibly discover instruments” that may prolong the attain of licensed clinicians, not exchange them altogether. It additionally stated that CMS helps using AI-enabled instruments when they’re evidence-based, patient-centered and used appropriately beneath scientific oversight.
What rural America is already dealing with
Oz’s feedback got here as rural hospitals have confronted steep cuts beneath the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act that President Trump signed final 12 months, a reconciliation regulation that cuts federal Medicaid spending by about $1 trillion {dollars} over 10 years, closely impacting rural hospitals.
These hospitals already had been grappling with monetary pressures. In keeping with the nonpartisan analysis group KFF, greater than 190 rural hospitals have shut down between 2005 and early 2024 — about 10% of all rural hospitals within the nation — due to funds shortfalls and associated challenges. Some communities have misplaced their solely hospital, leaving residents having to drive lengthy distances for fundamental and emergency medical therapy — or skip it altogether.
Throughout america, folks dwelling in rural counties usually tend to die early from 5 main causes — coronary heart illness, most cancers, persistent decrease respiratory illness, stroke and unintentional accidents — than these in city areas, in line with a report revealed by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention in 2024. A lot of these deaths are preventable with well timed, high quality care, in line with the report.
The CDC analysis pointed to a number of culprits: restricted entry to suppliers, longer journey occasions, fewer emergency providers, larger poverty charges and decrease insurance coverage protection.
A well being care system with fewer folks?
Carrie Henning-Smith, affiliate professor on the College of Minnesota and co-director of its Rural Well being Analysis Heart, says using AI avatars would strip away one thing important: human connection.
“Well being care has all the time been about humanity and relationship,” she stated. “In case your first and solely supplier is an avatar, we’re eradicating belief, consolation, and continuity.”
Henning-Smith additionally raised considerations about testing unproven know-how on already underserved populations.
“I do not like the thought of rural populations being handled as guinea pigs,” she stated. “If that is the place we’re testing AI in well being care, there’s so much that would go mistaken.”
She additionally pointed to logistical considerations comparable to unreliable broadband, low well being literacy and fragile transportation programs. If AI programs cannot perform and not using a secure digital spine, she stated, they may deepen current gaps.
Supporters say AI may assist increase entry
However some well being tech leaders argue that AI instruments may assist rural communities — not by changing docs, however by taking up administrative burdens that hold clinicians from seeing sufferers.
Matt Faustman is the co-founder and CEO of Honey Well being, an organization that develops AI instruments designed to automate duties for suppliers — together with managing fax inboxes, processing prior authorizations and retrieving affected person data.
Many suppliers are overwhelmed by paperwork, Faustman stated, and the burden is particularly heavy in rural settings the place clinics could not have massive administrative groups.
“Thirty to forty % of doctor or supplier time can actually get absorbed with administrative work,” he stated.
Faustman stated automating these duties may unencumber clinicians to concentrate on affected person care — and permit small hospitals and clinics to scale quicker with out hiring extra back-office staffing.
He additionally stated AI may play a job on the patient-facing aspect, particularly in areas the place the appropriate supplier just isn’t instantly accessible.
“It could possibly function an preliminary triage and even an early entry alternative for these sufferers to then get diverted to the appropriate suppliers,” he stated.
Can AI actually replicate a human clinician?
Henning-Smith argues that even when AI instruments can deal with fundamental duties, they can not replicate the core of what well being care requires.
“AI cannot learn facial expressions, tone of voice, or physique language,” she stated. “And people issues matter. That is the place the connection between a affected person and supplier is constructed — within the nuance.”
Even when AI instruments are correct, she stated, they can not provide the reassurance or cultural sensitivity that comes from a trusted clinician. And in communities the place belief within the medical system is already fragile, that loss might be particularly damaging.
Henning-Smith additionally raised considerations in regards to the financial penalties of changing native jobs with AI know-how.
“When a nurse or physician is employed in a rural city, their wage stays there,” she stated. “However if you exchange that job with an AI software in-built Silicon Valley, that cash leaves.”
Public backlash
On-line response to Oz’s feedback was swift.
“You assume rural communities need AI docs? They’re nonetheless making an attempt to get dependable web,” one consumer wrote on X.
One other added, “Dr. Oz: ‘We changed your nurse with a cartoon. You are welcome.'”
Nonetheless, a couple of voices defended the thought, noting that some care is best than no care in any respect.
“It is not ideally suited,” one publish learn, “but it surely’s higher than nothing.”
Oz has not provided a full implementation plan, and CMS has not confirmed whether or not AI avatars will grow to be a proper a part of the company’s rural well being technique.
However Henning-Smith hopes the dialog does not finish with value financial savings.
“I might be curious if Dr. Oz would need an avatar treating his circle of relatives,” she stated. “This looks like a two-tiered system — one for these with assets, and one other for these with out. And I do not assume we needs to be okay with that.”
