Louisiana Requires Verbal Disclosure Before AI-Assisted Recording of Patient Encounters

Key Takeaways

• Louisiana Act 649 requires healthcare professionals to verbally disclose AI-assisted recording before recording begins. The requirement took effect August 1, 2026, and applies to recordings transcribed using artificial intelligence.
• The law requires disclosure, not affirmative patient consent, but healthcare organizations should establish consistent workflows for documenting disclosure and addressing patient objections.
• Louisiana providers should review ambient scribe, EHR-integrated transcription, and telehealth tools now. Compliance safeguards should address privacy, recording laws, vendor controls, data retention, and AI-generated documentation.

As healthcare providers’ adoption of ambient documentation technologies continues to accelerate, so does attention from state regulators. These tools can capture portions of clinician-patient conversations and use artificial intelligence to create transcripts or draft clinical notes. Louisiana has now imposed a patient-facing requirement for certain uses of those technologies.

What Louisiana Act 649 Requires for AI-Assisted Patient Recording

Effective August 1, 2026, Louisiana Act 649 requires a healthcare professional licensed under Title 37 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes to verbally disclose the use of any recording device, software, or service before recording any part of an appointment or treatment that will be transcribed by artificial intelligence. It has been codified at La. R.S. 37:22.1.

Title 37 provides for the licensing and regulation of a diverse range of healthcare professionals, including individuals in medicine, nursing, dental health, mental health, physical therapy, social work, and rehabilitation services. The statutory wording is broad and can therefore reach more than a standalone “ambient scribe” application and may implicate Electronic Health Record (“EHR”)-integrated ambient documentation features, telehealth transcription tools, and other recording-enabled services that use AI to transcribe an encounter.

Does Louisiana Act 649 Require Patient Consent or Disclosure?

The final version of the law only requires disclosure, rather than consent. This is distinct from the introduced version of the bill, which would have required the patient’s verbal consent before a clinician could record a visit for AI transcription and would have required the clinician to proceed without AI transcription if the patient declined. The enacted version instead requires the clinician to make a verbal disclosure before recording begins; it does not expressly require affirmative consent, a written acknowledgment, or a statutory opt-out process.

Because verbal disclosure should occur before the tool is activated, a process design should consider how to memorialize that such disclosure did occur. Organizations should also determine in advance whether their policy will permit a patient to opt out, require the tool to be turned off upon request, or address objections in another defined manner.

Further, Louisiana Act 649, by its plain language, applies to patients. It does not address individuals accompanying patients to their appointments, or expressly address considerations for treatment of minors or with respect to sensitive health categories. Thus, a consistent, patient-centered approach will reduce uncertainty for clinicians and staff while supporting legal compliance and protecting trust in the clinical encounter.

In addition, the new disclosure requirement should be assessed as part of a comprehensive approach to patient notice and consent for recording and AI use. The statute requires disclosure before recording begins, and providers should consider whether the required verbal warning should also be coupled with other measures, which might include a sign in the waiting room, an intake-form statement, and/or a portal notice.

Enforcement and Compliance Risks

A healthcare professional who violates the statute may be subject to disciplinary action by the professional’s licensing board. At this early stage, it is unclear whether enforcement will be driven primarily through complaints or whether the state agencies will audit for ongoing compliance. Act 649 also provides that the healthcare professional is immune from civil liability unless the conduct involves gross negligence or willful misconduct. The civil-liability provision should not be read as a comprehensive safe harbor.

Organizations should continue to evaluate the broader legal and operational framework surrounding AI documentation deployment. Depending on the technology and workflow, that assessment may include HIPAA privacy and security obligations; state wiretapping and recording consent frameworks; vendor due diligence and business associate agreements; data-use and model-training restrictions; security controls; retention and deletion of audio and transcript data; medical-record integrity; professional standards; and heightened confidentiality rules applicable to particular services or patient populations.

What Louisiana Healthcare Providers Should Do Now

Act 649 is part of a broader state-level trend toward greater transparency and accountability in healthcare AI. Across the country, policymakers are addressing AI use through disclosure requirements, limits on autonomous clinical decision-making, human-review expectations, and specialized safeguards for higher-risk contexts.

For Louisiana providers, the immediate compliance obligation is to give a verbal disclosure before recording a patient encounter for AI transcription. However, the operational work is more substantial. Organizations that pair the required disclosure with clear governance, approved technology, vendor oversight, clinician training, and robust review of AI-generated documentation will be better positioned to capture the benefits of ambient documentation while managing the associated legal and patient-trust risks.

How AGG Can Help

AGG’s Healthcare and Privacy & Cybersecurity teams advise providers, digital health innovators, investors, and vendors on AI governance, contracting, regulatory risk, and product design.

We are closely tracking federal and state AI developments and can assist with AI inventories and risk assessments, policy development, evaluation of AI‑enabled tools, and alignment of your AI strategy with emerging legal requirements. For more information, please contact AGG Healthcare partners Madison Pool or Charmaine Mech Aguirre.