How to set up a CAQH profile

To set up a CAQH profile, register at proview.caqh.org (or through the invitation a health plan has CAQH send you), complete every profile section, clear the required fixes, authorize the plans that need your data, attest, and upload your supporting documents. It costs providers nothing, and CAQH estimates up to two hours for the first build if your documents are at hand. After that you re-attest every 120 days, or every 180 days if you practice in Illinois, or the profile’s status changes to Expired.

The order matters, because each step opens the next one. Here is how we build a profile for a provider joining commercial and Medicaid plans, and the details that hold one up.

What CAQH ProView is, and what changed in 2026

CAQH ProView is a free database where you enter your professional and practice information once and let health plans pull it, instead of completing a separate application for each one. The application it produces is accepted in all 50 states, and more than 1,000 health plans and other organizations ask their network providers to use it.

It is not verification. CAQH collects what you report, and each plan then checks it against primary sources and makes its own decision. It is not an application to join a plan, either: you still contact each plan, and only after a plan adds you to its CAQH roster can you authorize it to see your profile.

Who uses it depends on the payer:

• Commercial plans. Aetna, for example, pulls your credentialing application from CAQH ProView and asks you to name Aetna as an authorized plan.
• Medicaid. It depends on the state. Ohio Medicaid requires the CAQH profile for every individual provider who needs credentialing.
• Medicare. No. Medicare enrollment runs through PECOS or the paper CMS-855 forms.

CAQH is now DataSpring: what changed and what did not

On June 7, 2026, CAQH rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH, and launched a new website at dataspring.com. DataSpring’s clinician Q&A sets out what that means for you:

• Unchanged: your login, portal access, account information, profile and saved links. No action is needed.
• Still free: providers are not charged to use the portal.
• Ownership: CAQH was not sold or acquired. DataSpring is owned by companies affiliated with health plans, and it says those plans do not own or control your profile.
• New: emails and resources now carry the DataSpring name. If a message asking you to log in looks wrong, call the Solutions Center at 1-888-599-1771 before you act.

The portal is still called the CAQH Provider Data Portal and still lives at proview.caqh.org, and DataSpring’s own help pages still ask for your CAQH Provider ID. Aetna and Ohio Medicaid still say CAQH ProView, so we use the CAQH name too.

How to get a CAQH ID

There are two ways in, and both end with a CAQH Provider ID in your inbox.

1. A plan invites you. When a plan you are joining asks CAQH to invite you, you get a welcome email with a link to register. Use the CAQH ID in that email rather than registering again.
2. You self-register. Choose Register at proview.caqh.org. CAQH’s user guide lists what the form asks for: your NUCC grouping and provider type, name, address, primary practice state, birth date, email, Social Security number, NPI, DEA number, and license state and number. There are checkboxes if you have no NPI, DEA or license yet. CAQH then emails your CAQH Provider ID and a link to finish.

Finishing means a username (at least eight letters and numbers, no special characters), a password, three security questions and the terms of service.

If you may have had a profile before, from residency or an earlier job, run the portal’s Check for a CAQH ID lookup first. It shows your existing ID when it finds a match, and you pick up that profile instead of starting a second one.

Documents to have ready before you start

CAQH checks uploads against what you type, so gather these before you log in:

• Every state license you hold or have held. CAQH asks for all of them, current and past, not only the one you practice under.
• DEA registration and your state controlled substance (CDS) registration, if you prescribe.
• Board certification, with the expiration and last recertification dates if your certificate expires.
• Malpractice face sheet or certificate of insurance. The name, policy number and expiration date have to match the profile, or CAQH rejects the document.
• Malpractice history: the details of every claim, pending, closed or settled. Ohio Medicaid requires all of them disclosed and at least five years of work history on the CAQH form.
• CV and work history in months and years. CAQH treats a break of three months or more in full-time work as a gap that needs an explanation, and some states set a shorter limit: 30 days in Illinois, Georgia and Oklahoma, 60 in Oregon, and 90 in Minnesota, West Virginia and North Carolina.
• Hospital privileges or admitting arrangements, with dates, and a reason for any privilege that is no longer active.
• W-9, your NPI, and the group’s NPI and Tax ID for each practice location.
• The Authorization, Attestation and Release form for your state. Sign it near the end: CAQH will not accept it if the signature is more than 120 days old.

Nurse practitioners have a few more documents to keep current, covered in our guide to nurse practitioner credentialing.

How to fill in each section without stalling your file

The profile has eleven sections, and the questions change with your primary practice state. You can save and come back as often as you like, but the whole profile must be complete before you can attest and before any plan you authorized can see it. These are the sections where files get held up:

Review, attest, then upload

When every section is done, open Review and Attest:

1. Clear the errors. Required fixes block attestation. Suggested fixes do not, but read them: this is where CAQH flags a DEA number, NPI or Tax ID that does not match your name.
2. Read the data summary. It is a PDF of what plans will see. You can also download a copy of your state’s credentialing application.
3. Attest. You confirm that all the information is truthful and complete.
4. Upload documents, one per file, as PDF, TIF or JPG, each under the right document type.

CAQH reviews uploads in about 48 hours. A document fails if it is illegible, missing a date or signature, combined with another document in one file, expired, or filed under the wrong type. Until your documents are approved the status reads Profile Data Submitted; after that it changes to Initial Profile Complete.

How to authorize health plans to see your profile

You decide who sees the profile, and the Authorize page gives you two choices:

• Global authorization, which CAQH recommends: every organization that tells CAQH you are affiliated with it, or becoming affiliated, gets access.
• Named organizations only: you tick each plan yourself, so every new plan waits until you log in and add it.

A plan appears on that page only after it puts you on its CAQH roster, and CAQH does not do that for you: you contact each plan directly. If a plan you applied to is missing, ask it to add you to its roster. Until a plan is authorized, nothing in your profile reaches it.

Two more rules apply. Every time you change anything, you have to attest again before authorized plans see the update. And removing a plan later does not pull back what it already received, under DataSpring’s portal terms of service.

Medicaid plans

Medicaid depends on the state, so read your state agency’s credentialing guide before you file. Ohio, for example, combines credentialing with Medicaid enrollment, wants the CAQH ID on the first page of the application, and expects attestation at least every 120 days. A missing, incomplete or out-of-date profile gets the application returned, and you have nine days to respond before it is cancelled and denied. The full filing order across Medicare, Medicaid and commercial plans is in our guide to getting credentialed with insurance companies.

Re-attestation every 120 days, and what happens if it lapses

You have to re-attest every 120 days, or every 180 days if you practice in Illinois. Re-attesting means logging in, reviewing each section, updating what changed, uploading renewed documents and attesting again.

CAQH emails reminders 15 and 10 days before the due date. Miss it and the profile goes to Expired the next day; the notices then continue for six weeks, with the final one at day 42.

DataSpring also sends a quarterly email asking you to confirm your directory information. Re-attest each time it arrives and you stay on a 90-day cycle, well inside the deadline.

An expired profile costs more than a login. Plans see only what you have attested, Ohio Medicaid returns applications with an out-of-date attestation, and plans come back to recredential you every three years under NCQA standards, whether or not anyone is watching the calendar. How long each payer then takes is in our credentialing timeline guide.

Keep documents current between attestations

• Upload each license, DEA, board and malpractice renewal the week it arrives, not at the next deadline.
• If your license or malpractice policy has expired in the profile, the portal makes you update it before you can attest. For malpractice, renew the expired policy record first, then upload the new face sheet.
• When you add or leave a location, change it once in CAQH. Every participating plan you have authorized receives the change, but plans outside CAQH still need to hear from you directly.

Giving a credentialing service or office manager access

CAQH has a built-in way for staff to help: the practice manager module. Under DataSpring’s portal terms, you may authorize your practice administrators to enter information for you there, and they can work only with providers they are associated with. They enter shared details once, such as the clinic’s name, address and phone number, and an Import button appears in the matching sections of your own profile so you can review the data and pull it in.

Many practices simply give a credentialing company the provider’s own login. Know what the terms say before you do. DataSpring’s general terms make you responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done in your account, whether or not you authorized it. The portal terms add that you are responsible for verifying the data and correcting any mistakes.

Whichever route you choose:

• Add the email of whoever maintains the profile as an additional email. CAQH copies reminders there, and its user guide names staff who maintain your profile as one reason the field exists.
• Name that person as the credentialing contact for each location, so plan questions reach them.
• Read the data summary yourself before each attestation.

In short: staff and vendors can do the typing, but the profile and the attestation stay yours.

How ReliableCare handles your CAQH profile

We build the profile or clean up the one you have, upload every document, authorize every payer on your list and keep the attestation current every 120 days. Then we file Medicare, Medicaid and commercial applications in priority order, follow up with every payer weekly with a live status tracker you can see, and confirm effective dates in writing.

The CAQH work comes with each application. Credentialing costs $189 per payer application, or $150 per payer for up to 7 payers and $120 per payer for up to 20 payers, with no setup fees. See provider enrollment and credentialing for what each application includes, and pair it with medical billing so held claims and effective dates sit in one place.