Apply to Join NCQA’s AI Learning Collaborative
Driving Responsible AI in Healthcare
Artificial intelligence is reshaping healthcare—but without clear strategy, governance and evaluation, implementations can become fragmented and difficult to scale. NCQA’s AI Learning Collaborative brings health plans together to move from experimentation to measurable, outcome-driven AI implementation.
Through a structured, cohort-based experience, participants will not only learn from peers, but also produce tangible outputs, evaluate their current AI use and understand how their performance compares against their peers.
What Is the AI Learning Collaborative?
The AI Learning Collaborative is an approximately eight-month paid learning program focused on responsible AI use in prior authorization workflows for health plans.
This learning collaborative is run by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) in partnership with Duke Institute of Health Care Innovation (DIHI).
Benefits of Program Participation
- Contribute to the development of—and gain early access to—a leading practices playbook outlining practical approaches for AI in prior authorization workflows, including an outcome-monitoring framework.
- Receive an NCQA and DIHI-led de-identified, quantitative and qualitative assessment of your organization’s AI implementation for prior authorization, including an assessment of your workflow against the playbook and an anonymous comparison of your organization’s outcomes against your peers.*
- Participate in regular opportunities to shape emerging industry-leading practices, learn from your peers and gain insight into implementation challenges and solutions.
*Please note: information collected as part of the Learning Collaborative will be de-identified, used in aggregate, and treated as confidential, in accordance with participation agreements.
Current Focus: Prior Authorization
Prior authorization is one of healthcare’s most visible and complex operational workflows. As health plans explore AI-enabled approaches, organizations face important questions around governance, compliance, performance measurement and outcomes.
The first cohort centers this high-risk, high-impact workflow that directly affects access to care and clinical decisions while supporting readiness for evolving requirements, including CMS-0057.
How the Collaborative Works
Participants progress through a structured cohort experience combining learning, evaluation and implementation:
Structured Learning and Peer Exchange
- Join facilitated discussions with peers on AI implementation challenges.
- Gain insights into implementation challenges and solutions.
Playbooks and Outcomes Frameworks
- Develop—and gain early access to—leading-practice implementation playbooks.
- Deploy standardized frameworks to evaluate AI performance.
- Align on what “high-quality AI” implementation looks like in practice.
Outcomes Evaluation and Benchmarking
- Contribute implementation and outcomes data.
- Anonymous assessment of performance against peers using de-identified outcome metrics.
- Identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Participation Expectations
Meeting Attendance
Including orientation, the kickoff, discussion-based meetings, office hours and 1:1 conversations.
Information Sharing
Share outcomes metrics and participate in surveys and interviews about your workflow and processes.
Active Engagement
Engage actively in discussions by sharing implementation experiences, challenges, lessons learned and emerging practices in a confidential peer-learning environment.
Resource Commitment
Dedicate a small, appropriately staffed team to this work, estimating a total of 8 to 10 hours per month.
Who Should Apply
This program is designed for health plans that:
- Are exploring, piloting, or scaling AI.
- Want practical, workflow-level guidance—not just theory.
- Value peer collaboration and shared problem-solving.
- Are committed to responsible, transparent AI adoption.
Application and Selection Process
Review Requirements
Understand cohort expectations and eligibility.
Submit Application
Provide details about your organization and AI priorities.
Review and Selection
NCQA evaluates submissions and follows up with next steps.
Join and Collaborate
Selected organizations join the cohort and begin working together.
Contact us today
We’re here to help.
Reach out to the program team for details.