Coalition for Health AI (CHAI), a nonprofit organization founded by clinicians to advance responsible health AI, and the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC), the leading association advocating for the nation’s Community Health Centers (CHCs) and their nearly 34 million patients in communities nationwide, announced a new strategic partnership that will empower safe and responsible AI adoption at CHCs across the country.
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CHCs provide critical healthcare and resources to patients at more than 17,000 sites in the United States–and they are seeing rapid changes as AI transforms the healthcare ecosystem. AI adoption among physicians rose from 38% in 2023 to 66% in 2024—and nearly half of community health initiatives using AI report improved outcomes. But despite growing adoption and outcome improvements, 60% of all CHCs and 70% of rural CHCs report that expenses were a challenge to implementing emerging technologies.
Today’s announcement reflects NACHC and CHAI’s shared mission: ensuring CHCs and their patients are prioritized and positioned to benefit from the rapidly expanding use of AI in healthcare. Leveraging their combined scale and expertise through NACHC’s Science, Education, Practice, and Policy (SEPP) framework, the organizations will collaborate on building a trusted AI infrastructure and standards specifically designed with CHCs and other safety-net providers nationwide. Key elements of this partnership include:
- Science: Jointly conduct and support research and surveys to understand AI adoption in CHCs, validate AI tools for use in safety net settings, assess their impact on healthcare outcomes, and develop a certification program for AI vendors seeking to work with CHCs.
- Education: Develop and disseminate evidence-based and practical educational programs, resources, and services to enhance AI literacy and competency among CHC professionals and the broader safety net.
- Practice: Support responsible integration of AI tools into clinical and operational workflows, ensuring alignment with ethical and safety standards.
- Policy: Advocate for policies, regulations, and standards that foster trustworthy, transparent, accessible and fair AI use in primary care.
“As AI continues to transform healthcare, we are grateful to work with CHAI to ensure all CHCs delivering care to nearly 34 million patients or at least 1 in 10 people across our nation, including 1 in 5 in rural America—and the more than 326,000 professionals who work within their walls—are at the table,” said Kyu Rhee, MD, MPP, President and CEO of NACHC. “Our collaboration with CHAI aims to leverage responsible AI playbooks that are transparent, ethical, and positively impact the populations they’re meant to serve.”
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NACHC and CHAI will lead an inaugural survey of CHCs to assess current uses of technology and AI, identify gaps, and surface opportunities for innovation in clinical settings. These findings will inform the co-development of future tools. The organizations will also co-design an “AI in Healthcare for the Safety Net” curriculum, with tailored content for CHC leaders, providers, and other safety-net organizations at various levels, available in virtual, hybrid, and in-person formats to address the urgent need for AI literacy across the field.
NACHC will also join and co-chair CHAI’s tiger team initiative to explore the use of AI-powered tools to streamline Medicaid eligibility and enrollment changes passed under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). NACHC’s participation will ensure that CHC staff and patient experiences are represented in best practice frameworks developed by the tiger team. CHC served over 16 million patients on Medicaid in 2024, and Medicaid reimbursement remains an essential part of CHC funding.
“Partnering with NACHC means we can help move the needle on progressing AI adoption with our nation’s largest primary care system,” said Dr. Brian Anderson, MD, President and CEO of CHAI. “The impact and reach we’ll have together is unprecedented, and I’m eager to hit the ground running to ensure safe and widespread adoption of AI, regardless of population, geographic area, or financial constraints.”
As part of this collaboration, CHAI and NACHC will invite Health Center Controlled Networks (HCCNs) and Primary Care Associations (PCAs) to join CHAI’s Assurance Resource Provider Network, expanding the reach of trusted partners advancing responsible AI in health. HCCNs and PCAs represent networks of CHCs working together to leverage health information technology (HIT) to improve CHCs’ operational and clinical practices, and regional nonprofit organizations that provide training to safety-net providers, respectively.
Dr. Anderson will launch this partnership as a featured keynote speaker at NACHC’s CHI Community Health Conference in Chicago, August 17-19, 2025. NACHC’s CHI is the largest annual gathering of CHC clinicians, executives, consumer board members, along with PCAs and HCCNs.
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Source- PR Newswire
