{
  "source": "Cooked Index — occupational AI risk register",
  "page": "https://cookedindex.com/jobs/healthcare-diagnosing-or-treating-practitioners-all-other/",
  "methodology": "https://cookedindex.com/methodology",
  "notice": "Verdicts are re-examined as evidence accumulates. Re-fetch before relying on this; the page above always carries the current score.",
  "scored_at": "2026-08-11",
  "model": "claude-opus-5",
  "occupation": {
    "title": "Healthcare Diagnosing or Treating Practitioners, All Other",
    "soc_code": "29-1299",
    "category": "Healthcare",
    "us_employment": 28630,
    "median_annual_wage": 115210
  },
  "verdict": "SAFE",
  "risk_resistance": 74,
  "contested": false,
  "near_boundary": false,
  "dimensions": {
    "task_resistance": 13,
    "embodiment": 16,
    "liability_shield": 15,
    "trust_premium": 15,
    "judgment_accountability": 15
  },
  "reasoning": {
    "task_resistance": "A perfusionist running the pump during cross-clamp, an orthoptist measuring strabismus deviation with prisms on a squirming six-year-old, or a hyperbaric tech pressurizing a chamber are tasks no model performs — but the same worker's documentation, insurance pre-auth, patient handouts, and outcome-tracking spreadsheets are already being drafted by software, which is why this sits at 13 rather than 17.",
    "embodiment": "The work happens with hands on a patient in rooms that are not controlled — an OR with a bleeding field, a dive chamber at 2.4 ATA, a rehab gym floor where a kinesiotherapist bears a patient's weight during gait training — and a 16 rather than 19 reflects that some of this bucket (naturopathic consults, treatment planning) is done seated across a desk.",
    "liability_shield": "Perfusionists hold state licensure or ABCP certification and are named in surgical incident reports; naturopathic physicians are licensed to diagnose and prescribe in roughly half the states and unlicensed in the rest, and orthoptists work under ophthalmologist supervision — that patchwork is what pulls this to 15 instead of the 18-19 an MD or DDS gets.",
    "trust_premium": "An orthoptist seeing the same amblyopia patient every three months for years, or a naturopath whose whole practice model is longer visits than a 12-minute primary care slot, means referral flow and adherence ride on the individual clinician — capped at 15 because much of the bucket receives patients by hospital assignment, not by name request.",
    "judgment_accountability": "A perfusionist deciding on flow rate, hemodilution, and when to warn the surgeon about rising lactate makes calls in minutes with no protocol that covers the specific patient; the 15 reflects that these are consequential but bounded by a surgeon, ophthalmologist, or physician who owns the overall case."
  },
  "rationale": "This catch-all bucket covers licensed diagnosing/treating clinicians who don't fit the named titles — naturopathic physicians, hyperbaric specialists, kinesiotherapists, orthoptists, cardiovascular perfusion and similar hands-on roles — and the modal worker spends most hours physically examining, treating, and monitoring patients in person. AI is already taking over the chart notes, coding, history intake, patient education handouts, and literature lookups, but it cannot palpate, position, operate a device on a live patient, or hold the license that authorizes the treatment plan. The regulatory shield is real but state-by-state and thinner than MD/RN licensure for some titles in this bucket, so it varies by specialty.",
  "outlook": "By 2035 the paperwork half of this job is largely AI-drafted, but the hands-on treating half grows with an aging patient population — expect fewer clerical hours and more patient contact hours, not fewer jobs.",
  "what_would_raise_it": {
    "levers": [
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "State-by-state licensure closure for the unlicensed/partially-licensed titles in this bucket: e.g. additional states adopting naturopathic doctor licensing acts (currently ~half of states), and states adding title protection plus mandatory certification for cardiovascular perfusionists (only a minority — e.g. Illinois, Ohio, New York — license perfusionists today). Each new act makes a named human the legally accountable signer for a treatment plan or an extracorporeal circuit run.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 3
      },
      {
        "dimension": "liability_shield",
        "change": "Joint Commission or CMS Conditions of Participation language requiring a credentialed perfusionist/hyperbaric technologist physically present and personally attesting to device parameters during a case, rather than remote or automated monitoring — analogous to the anesthesia CoP requiring a qualified practitioner's presence.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "judgment_accountability",
        "change": "Task-mix shift: once documentation, coding, intake and literature review are fully absorbed by AI scribes, the residual hours are almost entirely intra-procedure calls under ambiguity — pump flow and anticoagulation decisions on a deteriorating patient, hyperbaric dive abort decisions, orthoptic surgical referral judgments. The role's remaining content is the judgment tier.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "task_resistance",
        "change": "Same two-tier shift: the automatable tier here is clerical and educational, not clinical, so its removal raises the fraction of the day AI cannot do at usable quality. This rises without any regulatory change.",
        "plausibility": "already happening",
        "would_add": 2
      },
      {
        "dimension": "trust_premium",
        "change": "For the wellness-adjacent titles (naturopathic, integrative), buyer demand is explicitly for a human relationship and is largely cash-pay, insulating it from payer-driven substitution; an expansion of employer wellness benefits or state insurance mandates covering licensed ND visits (as Washington and Vermont already require) deepens that.",
        "plausibility": "plausible",
        "would_add": 2
      }
    ],
    "ceiling_note": "Embodiment is already near ceiling at 16 and has no upward route. The bucket's heterogeneity is the real limit: gains from licensure closure accrue only to the specific titles that get licensed, so a bucket-level score can only move a few points even if individual specialties move a lot."
  },
  "adjudication": null,
  "employment_history": {
    "points": [
      {
        "y": 2021,
        "emp": 26250,
        "wage": 100300
      },
      {
        "y": 2022,
        "emp": 30080,
        "wage": 106230
      },
      {
        "y": 2023,
        "emp": 31100,
        "wage": 107990
      },
      {
        "y": 2024,
        "emp": 30870,
        "wage": 113730
      },
      {
        "y": 2025,
        "emp": 28630,
        "wage": 115210
      }
    ],
    "from": 2021,
    "to": 2025,
    "change_pct": 9.1,
    "comparable_from": 2021,
    "spans_soc_revision": false
  },
  "pivots": [],
  "license": "https://cookedindex.com/terms"
}