The National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) served as a co-chair of the Coalition for Health AI’s (CHAI) efforts to produce two Best Practice Guides (BPGs) in May 2026.
These guides are designed to help states, developers, and implementers responsibly deploy artificial intelligence (AI) within Medicaid eligibility workflows while preventing inappropriate coverage loss as new requirements take effect. The guides focus on two use cases: Medicaid enrollment and eligibility adjudication.
Each document was designed to provide practical, role-based recommendations for using AI responsibly to navigate Medicaid’s new community engagement requirements under H.R.1. The release is intended as a practical resource for state agencies, vendors, and the broader Medicaid community as implementation begins. The guidance is designed to help organizations modernize eligibility operations while reducing the risk of administrative disenrollment and inappropriate coverage loss among eligible beneficiaries.
Community engagement requirements represent a significant operational shift for state Medicaid programs as they move from one-time eligibility determinations to continuous compliance tracking across employment, training, education, volunteering, and exemption status. States and organizations supporting beneficiaries — such as health centers — will need to be prepared for frequent touchpoints, expanded documentation needs, and more procedural disenrollments. While AI is poised to play a meaningful role in reducing administrative burden, this can only be done by pairing it with strong oversight, transparency, and safeguards.
