Arizona

Arizona Behavioral Health Credentialing and AHCCCS Enrollment

Q: Does Arizona really pay me for services delivered while credentialing is running?

It can, and Arizona is one of the few states where that is true. Since April 1, 2026, A.R.S. section 20-3456 lets a provider be paid for services from the date on the carrier's notice that the credentialing application was complete, through the date the network participation contract is executed. Read the conditions, because two of them sit on you. You may only submit those claims after the contract is executed and credentialing is approved, so you have to hold them, and there is a one-year filing shield that makes holding safe. And you owe the patient dated written notice before the service, naming you, giving estimated billing costs, and saying plainly that you are not yet credentialed and not a contracted provider. This is not a penalty for a late carrier. It is keyed to the completeness notice regardless of whether anyone was late.

Q: What is Arizona's credentialing deadline, and what happens if a carrier misses it?

A.R.S. section 20-3453 gives an Arizona health insurer 60 calendar days to conclude credentialing after a complete application, 30 calendar days to load you into its billing system, and 7 calendar days after concluding to send written notice of approval or denial. Where a licensed health care facility holds delegated credentialing, the insurer has 10 calendar days to finish loading once it has the roster. The stronger lever sits one section earlier. Under section 20-3454 the carrier has 7 calendar days to acknowledge your application and say whether it is complete, with a detailed list of anything missing. Miss that notice and the application is treated as complete by operation of law, which starts both clocks and sets your back-pay date. Enforcement runs through the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Section 20-3459 creates no private right of action, so the route is a regulator complaint, not a lawsuit.

Arizona is one of the few states where waiting for credentialing can be paid time. Since April 1, 2026, A.R.S. section 20-3456 lets you bill back to the date on the carrier’s notice that your application was complete. Two conditions come attached and both sit on you: hold every claim until the contract is executed and credentialing is approved, and give the patient dated written notice before you see them.

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Arizona payers and timelines

Where the delays actually happen

Getting on a panel isn’t the same as getting paid.

Arizona’s problem isn’t paperwork volume, it’s order. AHCCCS answers the question itself on its own tip sheet: once you have an AHCCCS ID number, are you credentialed? No. Each health plan credentials you after that, then each plan contracts with you, and the shared plan application warns that members may not be seen until you have written confirmation of your effective date. Filing out of order is how a month disappears here.

Credentialed›contracted›loaded›connected›payable

Two tracks

One state registration, six plan decisions, and a clock on the commercial side.

AHCCCS has been managed care since the beginning, so Medicaid here is a registration plus a plan-by-plan job. The commercial side is the opposite: fewer steps, but real statutory deadlines that almost nobody invokes.

AHCCCS

Register in APEP. Then credential and contract with each plan.

Arizona was the last state to adopt Medicaid and built it as managed care from the start. Members enroll in an AHCCCS Complete Care plan covering physical and behavioral health together, across three Geographic Service Areas: North, Central and South. Arizona Complete Health-Complete Care Plan is the only ACC plan in all three.

How you registerEverything runs through APEP, the AHCCCS Provider Enrollment Portal. There is no paper application for any provider type. The first real decision is the enrollment type: Individual or Sole Proprietor, Rendering or Servicing Provider, Group Biller (Provider Type 01), Facility or Agency Organization, or ROPA. AHCCCS generally processes within 60 days, the effective date is generally the approval date, and retroactive dates are considered case by case rather than granted. The 2026 enrollment fee is $750 and lands on institutional providers. Practitioners and group billers are exempt.

The silent failureA rendering or servicing provider has to associate to a billing provider that is already in pending or active status. Affiliating to a terminated or suspended provider is not allowed, and it fails quietly rather than loudly. We check the billing provider’s status before we submit the rendering enrollment, not after.

The SMI layer changes who paysPhysical and behavioral health were integrated into the ACC plans on October 1, 2018, so for a routine member the behavioral health payer is just their ACC plan. A member with a Serious Mental Illness designation moves to the ACC-RBHA plan for their region: Mercy Care in the Central GSA, Arizona Complete Health in North and South. The designation itself isn’t made by the plan. AHCCCS contracts it to Solari, which reviews an assessment packet submitted by a contracted behavioral health provider.

One form, many plans, separate decisionsThe AzAHP Credentialing Alliance is the shortcut. All AHCCCS plans participate, practitioner credentialing runs on CAQH, one AzAHP Practitioner Data Form goes to every plan you want, verification is done once by a shared organization, and a site visit for one plan satisfies the others. It does not transfer a decision. Each plan credentials and contracts independently.

Revalidation is every four years, not fiveTighter than the federal floor, and a date people routinely get wrong. AHCCCS can also request off-cycle revalidations. The notice goes to the address on file, you have 90 days from the initial notification, and missing the date terminates the enrollment. Submit on time and enrollment continues while AHCCCS reviews. We watch the correspondence address in APEP, because a notice sent somewhere stale is how a good enrollment quietly dies.

Commercial

One Blue, several behavioral doors, and deadlines with teeth.

Arizona is a single-Blue state, so the in-state Blue picture is one contract rather than a county map. The 2026 Marketplace carriers are Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Cigna, Arizona Complete Health, UnitedHealthcare of Arizona, Oscar Health, Imperial Insurance and Antidote Health, all HMO for 2026.

The clock, and the part with real teethUnder A.R.S. section 20-3453 a health insurer has 60 calendar days to conclude credentialing after a complete application and 30 calendar days to load you into its billing system. Under section 20-3454 it has 7 calendar days to acknowledge and say whether the application is complete, with an itemized list of anything missing. Miss that notice and the application is treated as complete by operation of law, which starts both clocks and sets your back-pay date. That single document is worth more than any follow-up call.

The behavioral health door isn’t the same at every carrierUnitedHealthcare routes behavioral health to Optum through Provider Express. Cigna routes it to Evernorth. Aetna keeps it in-house but on its own behavioral health request for participation. AZ Blue and Arizona Complete Health both credential behavioral health through their standard practitioner path, which makes them two of the simpler doors in the state.

Your CAQH stays yoursYou complete and attest your own profile. We’re added as an authorized practice manager, so we keep the practice data current and get each payer authorized, and we never ask for a password. Arizona does not designate a statewide credentialing database the way Washington designates CAQH. Section 20-3452 only requires each insurer to run an electronic submission process and adopt a standard application, so authorization is granted carrier by carrier. The AHCCCS plans ask you to re-attest quarterly, which is tighter than the CAQH default.

Directory errors, and the duty that runs back at youSection 20-3455 gives a carrier 30 calendar days to correct a directory discrepancy after a participating provider reports it. The same section gives you 10 business days to report a change of name, address, phone number, business structure or tax identification number. A practice move has to be reported promptly, and directory errors are a real revenue leak.

Seeing patients in other statesOne AZ Blue contract reaches Blue members who live elsewhere through BlueCard, and Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare are national on one contract. The gate is a license where the patient is sitting, not another contract. Joining a different state’s network is a separate question with a per-state answer. Medicaid is the genuine exception and does not travel.

Arizona commercial payers

Who you’ll apply to, and how long it usually takes.

These are typical ranges from a complete application. Arizona actually has statutory deadlines behind them, which is unusual, but the Title 20 clock governs health insurers. Don’t assume it reaches an AHCCCS managed care contract.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (AZ Blue)

The one Blue licensee. Behavioral health stays on the standard path.

Usually: AZ Blue publishes a sequence rather than a single number. Section 20-3453 puts 60 days on the credentialing decision and 30 on loading once your application is complete. Plan for roughly that and confirm at submission
Deadlines that run against you: 30 days to respond if the CAQH application is incomplete before the contract request is considered withdrawn, 7 calendar days to answer a credentialing request for information, and 14 days to return a signed contract before your effective date slips. AZ Blue warns that if you don’t answer it will move the file forward as is, which can produce an adverse decision
Two Arizona specifics: AZ Blue also administers TriWest networks for Veterans through a separate addendum, so one relationship can carry a Veterans line. And for plan year 2026 its Marketplace coverage is HMO only, after it discontinued the individual PPO
Watch: AZ Blue treats an inaccessible CAQH profile as an incomplete contract request and restarts the process. Its published process PDF is dated 2020 while the live intake has moved, so we confirm the current route rather than working from the document

Optum Behavioral Health (UnitedHealthcare)

Initiated on Provider Express

Usually: about 60 to 120 days from a complete application, with the section 20-3453 clock available if the file goes quiet. Ask for it by name
Published green light: Optum’s Arizona page says it is actively seeking telemental health providers, prescribers offering medication-assisted treatment for addiction, and Express Access providers who can see members within 5 business days, along with EAP providers. MDs, DOs, PAs and RNs with prescriptive authority are among the types named
Watch: behavioral health starts inside Provider Express, not the UnitedHealthcare medical intake. The Community Plan Medicaid line is a separate contract again and serves only the Central GSA plus Pima County

Separate door: Optum Behavioral Health

Arizona Complete Health / Ambetter

Health Net of Arizona. The one relationship that spans both books.

Usually: real published numbers, which is rare. Initial credentialing completed within 60 calendar days of a complete application, recredentialing every 36 months, and recredentialing notices sent 180 days ahead of expiration
The underused lever: provisional credentialing completed within 14 calendar days of a complete application, with provisional status capped at 60 days. Worth asking for when a start date is tight
Why it’s the highest-value relationship in the state: Ambetter and Health Net cover the commercial and Marketplace side, while Arizona Complete Health-Complete Care Plan is the only ACC plan in all three GSAs and holds the ACC-RBHA contract for North and South. Two separate contracts, one organization
Behavioral health: credentialed in-plan rather than through a carve-out vendor, and the provider manual names licensed independent behavioral health professionals among the types credentialed directly

Aetna

In-house behavioral health, on a separate form

Usually: about 60 to 120 days from a complete file. Recredentialing generally every 36 months
Sequence: request for participation, then a network-need evaluation, then credentialing pulled from CAQH, then contract finalization
Watch: behavioral health professionals use Aetna’s separate behavioral health request for participation, including when joining a medical group. Starting on the medical form loses weeks
Arizona reality for 2026: Aetna exited the individual and ACA marketplace at the end of 2025, here as everywhere it sold individual coverage, so in Arizona it’s a commercial group and Medicare story rather than a Marketplace one

Separate form: Aetna Behavioral Health

Banner|Aetna

An Arizona-only joint venture that is easy to mis-route

Usually: no published turnaround. Participation runs through Banner Health Network contracting rather than a public queue, so network need is the first gate and timing the second. Banner Health Network publishes a 120-day response time and notes behavioral health may need extra review
The good news in that: behavioral health and psychiatry are not on Banner Health Network’s closed-panel list, while 13 other specialties are
Where it goes wrong: providers are directed to Banner Health Network contracting, not the standard Aetna join-the-network flow, so an application filed as Aetna can land in the wrong queue
2026: Banner|Aetna no longer offers, renews or holds active individual and family Marketplace plans as of January 1, 2026, in line with Aetna’s national exit. We confirm whether your patient mix warrants opening a second Aetna-family door at all

Cigna Healthcare

Behavioral health goes through Evernorth

Right now: Evernorth paused new individual and clinic behavioral health applications on June 1, 2026 and signaled a reopen after September 1, 2026. The pause is national, not an Arizona decision. Facilities are exempt and applications filed before June 1 are unaffected
The medical side is still active in-state: Cigna HealthCare of Arizona is a 2026 Arizona Marketplace carrier, so don’t read the pause as Cigna leaving
When it reopens: Evernorth says joining the behavioral network can take up to about 90 days, and it asks for re-attestation every 120 days
Our read: we track the reopen and queue your application rather than opening a door that’s closed

Separate door: Evernorth Behavioral Health

TriWest Healthcare Alliance

Headquartered in Phoenix. Behavioral health is in scope.

Usually: no published turnaround. The intake is a provider contract request and provider relations follows up, so confirm timing when they engage
What it covers: the VA Community Care Network and the TRICARE West Region. Behavioral health is explicitly in scope on the VA side
Two doors, pick one: providers start at TriWest’s own join-our-network request form, but AZ Blue also lists TriWest networks among the contracts it offers through a separate addendum. Ask which applies before opening both

What Arizona law does and doesn’t give you

The best statutory package in the Southwest, with conditions attached

The clock. Section 20-3453: 60 calendar days to conclude credentialing on a complete application, 30 calendar days to load you into the billing system, 7 calendar days after concluding to send written notice of approval or denial. Where a licensed health care facility holds delegated credentialing, the insurer gets 10 calendar days to finish loading once the roster arrives
The completeness notice is the whole game. Section 20-3454: 7 calendar days to acknowledge and say whether your application is complete, with a detailed list of every missing item. You then get 30 calendar days to supply it, the insurer gets 7 to re-acknowledge, and it may not toll the review more than three times. Miss your own 30 days and the application may be deemed withdrawn. Miss theirs and the application is treated as complete by operation of law
Back pay, and its two provider-side conditions. Section 20-3456, replaced by SB1291 and in force since April 1, 2026: you may be paid for services from the date on the carrier’s completeness notice through the date the contract is executed, provided you had applied, served an eligible member, and delivered the service after that notice. But you may only submit those claims after the contract is executed and credentialing is approved, with a one-year filing shield that makes the hold safe. And you owe the patient dated written notice before the service, naming you, giving estimated billing costs, and stating that you are not credentialed and not a contracted provider. This is not a lateness penalty. It is keyed to the notice date whether or not the carrier ran late
No private right of action. Section 20-3459 puts enforcement with the director and civil penalties under section 20-456. When a carrier blows the clock the route is a complaint to the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions, not a lawsuit. So the value is in documenting the dates, not in threatening one
No designated database. Unlike Washington, Arizona names no statewide credentialing repository. Section 20-3452 requires each insurer to run an electronic submission process and adopt a standard application, and in practice everyone runs on CAQH, but you still authorize carrier by carrier

Medicare and the AHCCCS Complete Care plans are scoped and priced separately from a commercial package. ALTCS, DES/DDD and the DCS Comprehensive Health Plan are separate program contracts again, and we confirm whether your patient mix actually needs them before adding a door. Humana is a Medicare Advantage and Medicaid conversation rather than a commercial group one, after its 2023 exit from employer group commercial medical.

Carry a plan we didn’t list? Add it.

Union and Taft-Hartley health and welfare trusts, self-funded employer plans through a TPA, VA Community Care, tribal health. You name the plan, we find the real route. Several of these aren’t a contract you apply for: American Indian members may sit on the American Indian Health Program with behavioral health through a Tribal Regional Behavioral Health Authority, which is a different path from the ACC plans and worth identifying early if you practice near tribal land. Union funds usually run through a rented commercial network rather than a direct contract, and Arizona has regional PPOs most providers never find because they sit under a national brand: Claritev, the former MultiPlan, still operates Arizona Medical Network, Rural Arizona Network and Health Management Network, which came over with its 2011 acquisition of HMA. We haven’t confirmed which rental network predominates in Arizona, so we check the actual route per fund rather than guessing. You don’t need to know the plumbing. We do.

What we need from you

Send these once and we can start.

You give us this in one intake. Then we fill out the applications. No passwords, no patient information, and nothing gets submitted until you’ve read it and signed.

Your individual NPIPlus a Type 2 if you bill under a group or entity. The AzAHP Practitioner Data Form asks for both, and an APEP rendering enrollment has to associate to a billing provider already in pending or active status.
Active Arizona license and DEAWith the initial licensure date, which AZ Blue’s credentialing intake asks for specifically. The AzAHP form has a separate X-DEA field for medication-assisted treatment prescribers.
CAQH attested and each payer authorizedArizona uses CAQH on both sides, every major commercial carrier and formally all the AHCCCS plans through the AzAHP Alliance. Note the local cadence: the AHCCCS plans ask you to re-attest quarterly and keep expired documents re-uploaded, which is tighter than the CAQH default. You attest, we keep it current, and we never ask for your password.
Delegated APEP accessSo we can complete your AHCCCS enrollment and each health plan application without sharing a password. We also need the correspondence address and communication preference on file, because that’s where the revalidation notice goes and you get 90 days to answer it.
Malpractice certificate with the right endorsementsThis is the Arizona trap. AHCCCS and AzAHP minimums are professional liability at $1,000,000 each claim and $2,000,000 annual aggregate, plus commercial general liability at $1,000,000 each occurrence and $2,000,000 general aggregate. The State of Arizona and its departments must be named as additional insureds and blanket endorsements are not accepted, a waiver of subrogation is required, and if you serve children or vulnerable adults the certificate has to state that Sexual Abuse and Molestation coverage is included or not excluded. A behavioral health file stalls on that last line more often than on anything else.
Entity name, EIN and W-9One per tax ID you bill under. A W-9 is a required attachment inside the APEP application, and the AzAHP form asks for an IRS 941 voucher or an accurate W-9 plus the 1099 registered name.
Board certification, or your CMEsWith the certification date, or the date of a scheduled certification exam. The AzAHP form requires one or the other, and some AHCCCS plans specifically require CME documentation when you aren’t board certified.
Work history and full disclosure answersWith dates and explanations. APEP requires adverse-action disclosures for you and anyone holding 5 percent or more ownership, plus managing employees and key personnel, and CAQH wants an explanation and dates for every yes on the questionnaire including malpractice claims history. Unexplained yes answers are the most common reason a file just sits.
Whether you prescribe for AHCCCS membersIf you do and you don’t intend to bill AHCCCS, you still need ROPA registration. This is the one that bites providers who think Medicaid doesn’t apply to them.

One live item to plan around: CMS wrote to every state on April 22, 2026 directing them to revalidate Medicaid providers, with two-year plans due back, so revalidation sweeps run from mid-2026 into 2028 nationally. Arizona already runs a tighter four-year cycle than the federal floor and reserves the right to ask off-cycle, and missing the date terminates the enrollment rather than warning you. The trigger is a notice sent to the address on file, so that address is the thing we watch.

Arizona may also want the practice entity itself licensed, separate from your own clinical license, and it folds that into general health care institution licensure under A.R.S. Title 36 rather than calling it a behavioral health agency license. For an ordinary private outpatient practice the answer is usually no, because Arizona writes the exception for private offices and clinics of licensed providers into the statute. It changes when you build a program on top of the practice, like intensive outpatient, partial hospitalization or anything residential. We confirm which side you’re on during intake and point you to the ADHS Bureau of Behavioral Health Facilities Licensing if it looks like it could apply. We don’t tell you whether you need one, we don’t publish the requirements, and we don’t file it for you.

How it works

You answer once. We do the paperwork.

Buy the package

Published price and scope. No call needed.

One intake

Short and guided. It asks more only where your answers call for it.

We fill it out

Your APEP enrollment, one AzAHP packet routed to every plan in your service area, and each commercial application.

You review and sign

Read it, change anything, sign. Nothing goes out until you say so.

We submit and track

Every purchase includes Command Suite, so you can see where each payer application stands, what we’re working on, what’s waiting on a payer, and what we still need from you.

What we commit to

If something we delivered does not work the way we said it would, we fix it at no charge for 30 days after delivery, including one stabilization review. That covers our own work. A new request, another payer or provider, a change of scope, or a new build is quoted separately. You will not get an invoice for correcting our mistake.

Everything we set up is built for the practice you are growing into, not only the one you have today. Adding a provider, a location, or another payer should be a configuration step rather than a rebuild, and the automations and workflows we deliver are sized with that headroom from the start. When the engagement ends you own the accounts, the documentation, and the systems, and they keep running without us.

Questions we get

Arizona credentialing questions

Does Arizona really pay me for services delivered while credentialing is running?

It can, and Arizona is one of the few states where that’s true. Since April 1, 2026, A.R.S. section 20-3456 lets a provider be paid for services from the date on the carrier’s notice that the credentialing application was complete, through the date the network participation contract is executed. Read the conditions, because two of them sit on you. You may only submit those claims after the contract is executed and credentialing is approved, so you have to hold them, and there’s a one-year filing shield that makes holding safe. And you owe the patient dated written notice before the service, naming you, giving estimated billing costs, and saying plainly that you’re not yet credentialed and not a contracted provider. One more thing worth being clear about: this isn’t a penalty for a late carrier. It’s keyed to the completeness notice whether or not anyone ran late.

What is Arizona’s credentialing deadline, and what happens if a carrier misses it?

Section 20-3453 gives an Arizona health insurer 60 calendar days to conclude credentialing after a complete application, 30 calendar days to load you into its billing system, and 7 calendar days after concluding to send written notice of approval or denial. Where a licensed health care facility holds delegated credentialing, the insurer gets 10 calendar days to finish loading once it has the roster. The stronger lever sits one section earlier. Under section 20-3454 the carrier has 7 calendar days to acknowledge your application and say whether it’s complete, with a detailed list of anything missing. Miss that notice and the application is treated as complete by operation of law, which starts both clocks and sets your back-pay date. Enforcement runs through the Arizona Department of Insurance and Financial Institutions. Section 20-3459 creates no private right of action, so the route is a regulator complaint rather than a lawsuit, and the real work is documenting the dates as they happen.

Does an AHCCCS ID mean I’m credentialed?

No, and AHCCCS answers it in those words on its own tip sheet. Registering in APEP gets you an AHCCCS ID. To see members of an AHCCCS health plan you then have to credential with that specific plan and complete contracting with it, and those are two more decisions by a different party. The AzAHP Practitioner Data Form is just as direct in the other direction: AHCCCS registration is required and you can’t be paid for services without an active registration. So the order is fixed. APEP first, then plan credentialing, then plan contracting. The AzAHP form also warns that members may not be seen until you have written confirmation of your effective date, and AHCCCS notes separately that your credentialing approval date may not be your effective date with the plan.

Do I have to register with AHCCCS if I never bill Arizona Medicaid?

Yes, if you prescribe, refer, order or attend for an AHCCCS member. Arizona calls it ROPA registration. Since January 1, 2021 a claim naming an unregistered ROPA provider is denied, which means your prescription can leave a pharmacy or another practice unpaid because of your registration status rather than theirs. AHCCCS built a short-form ROPA application for providers who hold an NPI, are already fully enrolled in Medicare or another state’s Medicaid, and don’t intend to bill AHCCCS, along with an ordering and prescribing only provider type. Residents, interns and pharmacists are handled through a separate excepted providers list. We register you as a matter of course when you prescribe in Arizona.

Do I fill out a separate application for every AHCCCS health plan?

No, and this is Arizona’s best administrative shortcut. All AHCCCS health plans participate in the AzAHP Credentialing Alliance. Practitioner credentialing runs on CAQH, one completed AzAHP Practitioner Data Form goes to each plan you want, primary source verification is done once by a shared verification organization, and a site visit performed for one participating plan means another isn’t required. What the Alliance doesn’t do is transfer a decision. AHCCCS answers that one too: being credentialed with one AHCCCS health plan does not automatically credential you with the others. Each plan makes its own credentialing determination and its own contracting decision. And the Alliance is Medicaid-side only. It does nothing for you on the commercial book.

Which Arizona plan covers my patients with a Serious Mental Illness designation?

The ACC-RBHA plan for their Geographic Service Area, which is a different plan from the one covering everyone else. Mercy Care holds the ACC-RBHA contract for the Central GSA, meaning Maricopa, Gila and Pinal. Arizona Complete Health-Complete Care Plan holds it for both the North and South GSAs, after Care1st’s North GSA membership transferred to Arizona Complete Health. Arizona integrated physical and behavioral health into the ACC plans on October 1, 2018, so for a routine member the behavioral health payer is simply their ACC plan. The SMI layer is designation-triggered, and the designation isn’t made by the health plan. AHCCCS contracts that to Solari, which reviews an assessment packet submitted by a contracted behavioral health provider. In Maricopa you generally want both an ACC contract and the Mercy Care relationship. Elsewhere Arizona Complete Health carries both roles on one plan.

Where does behavioral health credentialing actually go at each Arizona carrier?

It differs by carrier, and applying at the medical door where there’s a carve-out is the most expensive routine mistake in the state. UnitedHealthcare routes behavioral health to Optum through Provider Express, a separate network and a separate contract. Cigna routes it to Evernorth. Aetna keeps behavioral health in-house but on its own behavioral health request for participation rather than the medical one. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona and Arizona Complete Health both credential behavioral health practitioners through their standard practitioner path, which makes them two of the simpler doors here. Banner|Aetna is its own case: participation runs through Banner Health Network contracting, not the standard Aetna flow, so an application filed as Aetna can land in the wrong queue entirely. We confirm the door before anything is filed.

Keep reading

Arizona PMHNP scope of practiceWhat Arizona allows you to do, separate from who pays you.
New Mexico credentialing and payer enrollmentWrote the loading step into law: 30 days to decide, 30 more to load, and money if they miss.
Nevada credentialing and payer enrollmentA state credentialing form CAQH may not reach, and one central denial that locks every plan.
Utah credentialing and payer enrollmentA 120-day decision, no back pay, and psychiatric medications carved out to fee-for-service.
California credentialing and payer enrollmentMedi-Cal Rx denies a pharmacy claim when the prescriber isn’t enrolled, even cash-pay.
Packages and pricingPublished scope and price for every credentialing package we sell.
Opening your own practiceEntity, identifiers, payers, EHR and billing setup.
Adding a provider to your clinicFirst-time credentialing into contracts you already hold.
Changing your entity or tax IDMoving panels without breaking the money.

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Where this comes from

Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, APEP enrollment, processing goals, effective dates, the 2026 institutional fee and the participation agreements verified July 26, 2026
Arizona Association of Health Plans, the AzAHP Credentialing Alliance, the shared Practitioner Data Form, shared verification and the shared site visit verified July 26, 2026
Arizona State Legislature, A.R.S. sections 20-3452 through 20-3459, including the 60-day decision, the 30-day loading deadline and SB1291 (2025, Chapter 97) verified July 26, 2026
Arizona Complete Health, credentialing and recredentialing standards including 14-day provisional credentialing verified July 26, 2026
Mercy Care, the Central GSA ACC-RBHA contract and its county and ZIP code footprint verified July 26, 2026
Solari, Inc., the Serious Mental Illness eligibility determination process and the statewide crisis line verified July 26, 2026
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, contract request and credentialing intake, CAQH requirements and the TriWest addendum verified July 26, 2026
Optum and Provider Express, Arizona network need for telemental health, MAT prescribers and Express Access providers verified July 26, 2026
Evernorth Behavioral Health, the pause on new individual and clinic applications and the 120-day re-attestation cadence verified July 26, 2026
Banner|Aetna and Banner Health Network, Arizona provider participation routing and the 2026 Marketplace discontinuation verified July 26, 2026
TriWest Healthcare Alliance, the VA Community Care Network provider contract request verified July 26, 2026
Arizona Revised Statutes section 36-402, the health care institution licensure exemption for private offices and clinics verified July 26, 2026

Written by Ryan Berg, founder of AdvanceAPractice. 16 years in healthcare revenue cycle and credentialing.

Facts on this page were verified July 26, 2026 and are next due for review October 19, 2026.

Payer programs, plans and timelines change. Everything here carries a verification date and gets re-checked on a review cycle; this record is next due for review on October 19, 2026. Approval and effective dates are controlled by each payer and by the state. This page covers payer operations. It isn’t legal, tax or scope of practice advice.