The CAQH ProView guide for therapists, counselors and NPs

What CAQH is, and its new name

CAQH runs the shared credentialing database that most US health plans use to collect a clinician's information: licenses, education, work history, malpractice coverage, practice locations and a set of yes-or-no disclosure questions. You enter it once; each plan you authorize reads the same profile. It's free for providers.

The name changed in 2026. In June 2026, CAQH rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH, and the provider tool long called CAQH ProView is now the Provider Data Portal. Your login, your CAQH Provider ID and the 120-day attestation cycle stayed the same, and the portal still lives at proview.caqh.org (Becker's coverage of the rebrand; the ADA's summary for its members says the same). Plans, applications and colleagues will keep saying "CAQH" and "ProView" for a long time, so this guide does too.

Who reads it: most commercial plans (in Texas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, Aetna, Cigna's Evernorth, UnitedHealthcare's Optum), most Medicare Advantage and marketplace plans, and the Texas Medicaid and CHIP managed care plans, whose shared verification organization works from it (TAHP's Credentialing 101). Networks such as Headway also ask for it. Who doesn't: Medicare enrollment runs through PECOS, Texas Medicaid enrollment through TMHP, and EAP networks usually have their own forms.

Before you start

Set aside an afternoon, and have these open on your desk. Scanning them first is faster than stopping in the middle of a section:

• Your professional license (number, issue and expiration dates), and for NPs your prescriptive authority agreement and DEA registration
• Your NPI (and your practice's organization NPI, if it has one). If you don't have one yet, read NPI Type 1 vs Type 2 first
• Malpractice declarations page: carrier, policy number, limits and dates
• CV with the month and year you started and left every job since your degree, and the reason for any gap
• Degree, school, graduation date; any board certifications
• Practice location details: address, phone, office hours, whether you're taking new clients, ages you see, languages you speak, telehealth, accessibility
• Your practice's tax ID (EIN) and legal name as on the IRS letter, or your SSN as a sole proprietor
• Three professional references, if your plans ask for them

1. Register, or find the profile you already have

• If a plan invited you, its welcome letter or email includes your CAQH Provider ID. Use it to register at proview.caqh.org.
• If not, self-register on the same site. When you finish, you get a welcome email with your CAQH Provider ID.
• Already had a profile? If you were ever credentialed through an employer, a group or a network such as Headway or Alma, you probably have one. Recover the login rather than starting a second profile; a duplicate confuses plans and stalls applications. The profile belongs to you, not to the employer or network that started it.

Registration asks for your Provider ID, identifying details, a username and password, and security questions (the CAQH provider user guide shows each screen). Write your CAQH ID down; every plan application asks for it.

2. Fill in each section

The profile walks you through sections like the ones below (labels on screen may differ slightly). Answer every question. "Not applicable," with a short explanation where there's a box for one, beats a blank, because a blank reads as incomplete.

3. Upload your documents

Upload clear, current scans, one document per upload, named so a person can tell what each is:

• Professional license (and, for NPs, the prescriptive authority agreement)
• Malpractice declarations page showing your name, limits and current dates
• DEA certificate, if you prescribe
• CV
• Signed W-9, if your plans ask for it there
• Board certification, if any

Put every expiration date on a calendar. An expired document in the profile is one of the quietest ways an application stops, and it's the first thing our credentialing service checks when a client's application has gone quiet.

4. Authorize your plans

Plans can't see your profile until you allow it. In the authorization section you can let every participating plan view it, or pick plans one at a time. Choosing all participating plans is simplest for most solo clinicians; pick individually if you want tighter control. If a plan says it can't see your profile, this setting is the first thing to check.

5. Review and attest

When every section is complete, review the summary, fix anything flagged, and attest: you confirm the information is true and current. Until you attest, plans treat the profile as unfinished, even if every field is filled in.

6. Give each plan your CAQH ID

CAQH doesn't apply to plans for you. You still request to join each plan's network, usually on its provider site, and put your CAQH Provider ID on the request. The plan then reads your profile, verifies it and decides. How each Texas plan takes requests, and what happens next, is in how to get credentialed with insurance.

7. Re-attest every 120 days

CAQH asks you to re-attest at least every 120 days, even when nothing has changed. If the attestation lapses, plans can no longer use the profile, which stalls any application still in review and any recredentialing that falls in the gap. CAQH emails a reminder (the CAQH quick reference describes the cycle); it's easy to miss, so put your own reminder on the calendar a week before. Re-attesting doesn't mean re-entering everything: review, update what changed (a new malpractice page, a renewed license, a new address) and attest again.

The errors that stall applications

These are the problems we fix most often when a clinician comes to us with an application that "has been in review forever." Each one adds weeks to how long credentialing takes:

For group practices

CAQH has a Practice Manager tool for groups: office details are entered once and shared across the group's clinicians, and an admin user can add other staff. Each clinician still owns and attests their own profile, and each plan still credentials each clinician and links them to the group. Start a new hire's profile the day they accept the offer; credentialing takes months. Our Group Practice Launch sets this up for every clinician at once.

Questions

Or book a free 30-minute call. If you're opening a whole practice, CAQH is included in both solo launch packages.

Sources

• Becker's Hospital Review, Insurer-owned CAQH rebrands to DataSpring
• American Dental Association, ADA Credentialing Service (DataSpring and the Provider Data Portal)
• DataSpring, Provider Data Portal (proview.caqh.org)
• CAQH ProView provider quick reference, registration, authorization and 120-day attestation (hosted by BCBS Illinois)
• CAQH ProView provider user guide, self-registration and profile steps (hosted by BCBS Illinois)
• CAQH, Practice Manager quick reference
• Headway, Using CAQH ProView for credentialing with Headway
• Texas Association of Health Plans, Credentialing 101 (Texas Medicaid)