Guide
CAQH Is Now DataSpring: Provider Data Portal Setup And Attestation, Step By Step
A step-by-step DataSpring Provider Data Portal (formerly CAQH) guide: building and attesting your profile, the 120-day re-attestation, and mistakes that stall credentialing.
Credentialing Basics
Why DataSpring Provider Data Portal (Formerly CAQH) Sits At The Center Of Behavioral Health Credentialing
If you’re a therapist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse practitioner or any other behavioral health provider trying to get in-network with commercial insurance, almost every road runs through one place: DataSpring Provider Data Portal (formerly CAQH). It’s a free, centralized database, and most commercial payers pull from it when they credential someone. Instead of mailing a separate packet to every plan, you keep one master profile and authorize insurers to view it.
For some payers, Regence in Oregon among them, your CAQH profile is your application. That’s news to a lot of clinicians. Others still want their own forms or your state’s uniform credentialing application, so check each payer’s actual intake instead of assuming CAQH covers it. Where CAQH is the route, the payer reads what you entered, verifies it and moves. A clean, complete, attested profile can be the difference between getting in-network in a few weeks and chasing a stalled application for months.
CAQH Is Now DataSpring: What Changed For Providers
In June 2026, CAQH rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH, and caqh.org now forwards to dataspring.com. For providers the change is mostly the name. DataSpring says no action is needed, and your portal access, account information, provider profile and saved links stay the same.
- Same sign-in. You still log in at proview.caqh.org, and that sign-in page still carries the CAQH name. Some of the newer user guides there say DataSpring Provider Data Portal, so you’ll see both names.
- Still free, same attestation cycle. DataSpring says the platform is provided at no cost to clinicians, provider groups and practices, and it describes profiles as maintained on a 120-day attestation cycle.
- Not a sale. DataSpring says CAQH wasn’t sold or acquired. It’s now a for-profit company owned by shareholder companies affiliated with health plans, and DataSpring says health plans don’t own or control provider profiles.
- CAQH CORE keeps its name. CAQH CORE writes the operating rules for electronic transactions such as eligibility checks, claim status and EFT/ERA payments. It’s a separate program from your provider profile.
Sources: DataSpring’s rebrand announcement (dated June 7, 2026), its For Clinicians page, its CAQH CORE operating rules page and the proview.caqh.org sign-in page, checked October 4, 2026.
Scope
What CAQH Covers And What It Does Not
DataSpring Provider Data Portal (formerly CAQH) is built for commercial payer credentialing, and when a private plan wants to add you to its network, that’s usually where it starts. It doesn’t cover everything. Assuming it does is one of the most common early missteps, and it’s an expensive one, because a Medicare or Medicaid enrollment you never filed doesn’t start until someone notices it’s missing.
Medicare and Medicaid don’t credential through CAQH. Medicare enrollment runs through its own system, usually PECOS, and Medicaid runs through your state’s Medicaid portal. Each is a separate application with its own login, forms and timeline. Requirements vary by payer and by state, so confirm the current process for each plan and state you’re enrolling in. One system won’t cover all of them. Our overview of provider credentialing services shows where CAQH ends and Medicare and Medicaid enrollment begin.
The Process
DataSpring Provider Data Portal (Formerly CAQH) Step By Step
None of this is complicated. The order matters, though, and so does finishing every part, because a profile that’s 95 percent done is, as far as credentialing goes, not done at all. Go through these in sequence.
- Your NPI comes first. You need your individual Type 1 National Provider Identifier before you begin. That’s your personal NPI as a clinician, not a group or organizational (Type 2) number.
- Register and get your CAQH ID. Often a payer starts your record and you receive a CAQH Provider ID. Otherwise you can self-register. Either way, you need that ID and a login before you can build anything.
- Every section, completed. Personal information, education and training, practice locations, hospital affiliations, work history and the disclosure questions all have to be filled in. A blank or skipped section holds up verification.
- Current supporting documents. CAQH verifies the documents behind your answers, so typed data alone won’t clear review. Every uploaded file needs to be current and unexpired, and the specific documents are listed below.
- Authorize your payers. Each plan needs your explicit permission to access the profile. If a payer isn’t authorized, it can’t see your information, and your application won’t move.
- Then attest. Attestation is you confirming that everything in the profile is accurate and current. Until you’ve attested, the profile isn’t complete, however thoroughly you filled it out.
Attestation is the step providers forget most. You can enter everything perfectly, upload every document and authorize every plan, and payers will still see an incomplete profile until you attest. That’s the real finish line.
Be Prepared
Documents To Have Ready Before You Start
Pull your paperwork together first and a multi-day slog turns into one focused afternoon, so get current, legible copies of everything below ready to upload before you log in. Prescribers need a couple of items talk therapists don’t.
License And Identifiers
Your active state professional license and your Type 1 NPI. Licensed in more than one state? Have every license on hand. And check that names and numbers match exactly across every source, since a mismatch is enough to stop verification.
DEA And Malpractice
Prescribers, meaning psychiatrists, PMHNPs and similar, need a current DEA registration. Everyone needs a malpractice certificate of insurance (COI) that shows active coverage and the policy limits.
CV With Gap-Free History
A current CV with a complete work history by month and year, where every gap has a short written explanation next to it. Leave a gap unexplained and you’ve handed the verifier one of the top reasons credentialing stalls.
Education And Board Certification
Documentation of your degree and training, plus any board certifications relevant to your specialty. These support the education and qualifications sections of your profile.
Avoid These
Common Mistakes That Stall Behavioral Health Credentialing
Nothing exotic causes most credentialing delays. A handful of avoidable errors do, and any one of them can send an application back to the bottom of the queue while you wait to bill in-network.
- An un-attested or outdated profile. It’s the single most common blocker. If you haven’t attested, or your last attestation lapsed, payers treat the profile as incomplete.
- Expired documents. A lapsed license, an expired DEA or an out-of-date malpractice COI stops verification until you upload a current replacement.
- Unexplained work-history gaps. Verifiers flag any time you can’t account for. A short note on each break saves you a round of back-and-forth.
- Failing to authorize payers. A plan you never granted access can’t see your profile, so the application stops before it starts.
- Mismatched name, NPI, or license. When details don’t line up across CAQH, NPPES and your applications, verification breaks. Keep our credentialing checklist handy and confirm every identifier matches in all three places.
Stay Active
Re-Attestation Keeps Your Profile Alive
Completing CAQH once isn’t a permanent fix. CAQH requires you to re-attest roughly every 120 days to keep your profile active and verified, even if nothing at all has changed. Re-attesting just means confirming the information is still accurate.
Miss that window and your profile can slip into an out-of-date status, which payers may read as a red flag during credentialing or recredentialing. Set a recurring calendar reminder. Or have a credentialing partner watch the date for you. The same lapse sits behind a lot of the slowdowns we cover in why credentialing delays happen.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Is DataSpring The Same As CAQH?
Yes. CAQH rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH, in June 2026, and caqh.org now forwards to dataspring.com. DataSpring says providers don’t need to do anything, and portal access, account information, profile and saved links stay the same. You still sign in at proview.caqh.org, the profile is still free and attestation still runs on a 120-day cycle. CAQH CORE, the operating rules program, is separate and keeps its name.
Is DataSpring Provider Data Portal (Formerly CAQH) Free For Providers?
Yes. DataSpring Provider Data Portal (formerly CAQH) is free for providers to create and maintain a profile. There’s no cost to register, complete your information, upload documents or attest. The real cost is your time. You build the profile once, keep every document current and re-attest roughly every 120 days.
Do I Really Need CAQH If I Only Want To Take Medicare Or Medicaid?
Not necessarily. Medicare enrolls through its own system, usually PECOS, and Medicaid goes through your state portal. Neither one uses CAQH. If you’ll bill commercial insurance too, you’ll almost certainly need CAQH as well. Requirements vary by payer and state, so confirm what each plan you want requires.
How Often Do I Have To Re-Attest?
Roughly every 120 days. CAQH prompts you to re-attest on a recurring cycle to keep your profile active and verified, and you’ll need to do it even when nothing has changed. Miss the window and the profile can slip into an out-of-date status, which payers may read as a red flag during credentialing or recredentialing, so set a recurring reminder.
My Profile Is Filled Out Completely But A Payer Says My Application Is Incomplete. Why?
Usually it’s one of three things: you haven’t attested, your attestation lapsed, or you never authorized that specific payer to access your profile. Check those first. Then make sure none of your uploaded documents have expired.
What Is The Difference Between A Type 1 And Type 2 NPI For CAQH?
A Type 1 NPI is your individual provider number, and it’s the one your personal CAQH profile uses. A Type 2 NPI identifies a group or organization. For individual credentialing through CAQH, you need your Type 1.
Not Sure Which Credentialing Package Fits?
Every credentialing package has a published price and a written scope. Tell us what’s changing in your practice and which payers you need, and we’ll point you to the right one.