Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers Administrator Mehmet Oz speaks at an Motion for Progress occasion about plans to remodel behavioral well being, on Feb. 2, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
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Heather Diehl/Getty Pictures
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 simplest 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, mentioned just lately at an occasion targeted on habit and psychological well being hosted by Motion for Progress, a coalition geared toward enhancing behavioral well being care. He mentioned 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 corresponding to digital avatars to conduct fundamental medical interviews, robotic methods for distant diagnostics, and drones to ship treatment the place pharmacies do not exist.
Oz even recommended changing in-person obstetric care with AI-guided units.
“We will use robots to do ultrasounds on pregnant girls,” Oz mentioned. “You’re 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 nice sufficient to inform me the kid would not have an issue.”
In a press release to NPR, the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Providers mentioned Oz was emphasizing the necessity to “responsibly discover instruments” that may prolong the attain of licensed clinicians, not exchange them altogether. It additionally mentioned that CMS helps using AI-enabled instruments when they’re evidence-based, patient-centered and used appropriately below medical oversight.
What rural America is already going through
Oz’s feedback got here as rural hospitals have confronted steep cuts below the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act that President Trump signed final 12 months, a reconciliation legislation 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 response to the nonpartisan analysis group KFFgreater than 190 rural hospitals have shut down between 2005 and early 2024 — about 10% of all rural hospitals within the nation — due to price range shortfalls and associated challenges. Some communities have misplaced their solely hospital, leaving residents having to drive lengthy distances for fundamental and emergency medical remedy — or skip it altogether.
Throughout the USA, individuals dwelling in rural counties usually tend to die early from 5 main causes — coronary heart illness, most cancers, power decrease respiratory illness, stroke and unintentional accidents — than these in city areas, in line with a report printed by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention in 2024. Lots 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 companies, greater poverty charges and decrease insurance coverage protection.
A well being care system with fewer individuals?
Carrie Henning-Smith, affiliate professor on the College of Minnesota and co-director of its Rural Well being Analysis Middle, says using AI avatars would strip away one thing important: human connection.
“Well being care has at all times been about humanity and relationship,” she mentioned. “In case your first and solely supplier is an avatar, we’re eradicating belief, consolation, and continuity.”
Henning-Smith additionally raised issues about testing unproven know-how on already underserved populations.
“I do not like the thought of rural populations being handled as guinea pigs,” she mentioned. “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 issues corresponding to unreliable broadband, low well being literacy and fragile transportation methods. If AI methods cannot operate and not using a secure digital spine, she mentioned, they may deepen present 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 over 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 mentioned, and the burden is very heavy in rural settings the place clinics might not have massive administrative groups.
“Thirty to forty % of doctor or supplier time can actually get absorbed with administrative work,” he mentioned.
Faustman mentioned automating these duties may unlock clinicians to deal with affected person care — and permit small hospitals and clinics to scale quicker with out hiring extra back-office staffing.
He additionally mentioned AI may play a task on the patient-facing aspect, particularly in areas the place the suitable supplier is just not instantly accessible.
“It will probably function an preliminary triage and even an early entry alternative for these sufferers to then get diverted to the suitable suppliers,” he mentioned.
Can AI actually replicate a human clinician?
Henning-Smith argues that even when AI instruments can deal with fundamental duties, they cannot replicate the core of what well being care requires.
“AI cannot learn facial expressions, tone of voice, or physique language,” she mentioned. “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 mentioned, they cannot 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 could possibly be particularly damaging.
Henning-Smith additionally raised issues concerning 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 mentioned. “However once you exchange that job with an AI instrument inbuilt Silicon Valley, that cash leaves.”
Public backlash
On-line response to Oz’s feedback was swift.
“You suppose rural communities need AI docs? They’re nonetheless making an attempt to get dependable web,” one person wrote on X.
One other added, “Dr. Oz: ‘We changed your nurse with a cartoon. You are welcome.'”
Nonetheless, just a few voices defended the thought, noting that some care is best than no care in any respect.
“It is not supreme,” one publish learn, “nevertheless it’s higher than nothing.”
Oz has not supplied a full implementation plan, and CMS has not confirmed whether or not AI avatars will turn into a proper a part of the company’s rural well being technique.
However Henning-Smith hopes the dialog would not finish with price financial savings.
“I might be curious if Dr. Oz would need an avatar treating his circle of relatives,” she mentioned. “This seems like a two-tiered system — one for these with sources, and one other for these with out. And I do not suppose we must be okay with that.”
