CARF International, an independent, nonprofit accreditor of health and human services, is including artificial intelligence (AI) standards in all of its accreditation surveys, effective July 1, 2026. To gain or renew CARF accreditation, aging services providers must now have written policies and procedures that govern how they use AI to deliver a program or service, including measures that ensure human oversight and accountability.

“Thoughtful implementation of AI requires organizations to be transparent and aware of the downside risks to persons served,” said Michael Johnson, CARF’s senior managing director of behavioral health, in a press release. “Creating sound governance structures to analyze results and protect from bias is essential.”

The new standard requires an organization’s AI policies and written procedures to include the following:

• How the organization uses AI
• Disclosures to the persons served regarding the use of AI in service delivery and for health data analysis and processing
• Privacy of health information and protection of sensitive data
• Human oversight and accountability
• What constitutes an incident requiring a response within the organization and to the persons served
• Review of AI policies at least annually, with updates as needed

Involving humans in overseeing and understanding AI outputs is a common thread in the new standards. “AI relies on data to function, and if data of persons served is used, there could be risk to privacy and data security,” said Terrence Carolan, Managing Director of Medical Rehabilitation and Aging Services, CARF International. “Having an AI standard that highlights disclosure to persons served is so impactful and consistent with CARF’s approach to accountability and transparency of accredited programs.”