Minnesota

Minnesota Behavioral Health Credentialing And Payer Enrollment

If you’re a behavioral health provider getting credentialed in Minnesota, you keep two files, and the one you forget stalls. Blue Cross, HealthPartners, Medica and PreferredOne don’t use CAQH; they run on the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application in ApplySmart, while Optum and Aetna still want CAQH. Medicaid comes first, because Blue Cross won’t review a contract request until you hold an MHCP welcome letter, and the state’s 45-day decision clock has no back pay behind it. Here’s the order, the two files, and what only you can sign.

See What We Need From You
Minnesota Payers And Timelines

Why Minnesota Is Different

Four Things About This State That Don’t Transfer From Anywhere Else.

Credentialing habits are portable. Minnesota is where that stops being true. Two of these help you and two of them cost you, and you need all four before you pick an order.

The Application Isn’t CAQH

Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application, filed in ApplySmart

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica and PreferredOne all run on the Minnesota Credentialing Collaborative’s ApplySmart system. HealthPartners requires Minnesota clinics to submit initial applications through it
The collaborative is a joint effort of the Minnesota Council of Health Plans, the Minnesota Hospital Association and the Minnesota Medical Association. It exists because this market is unusually nonprofit and the plans built one shared front door instead of five separate ones
Optum, Aetna and Evernorth still credential from CAQH, and Sanford Health Plan runs its own platform. So you maintain both files, and neither one covers the other
The forms were reissued effective January 1, 2025, revised to strip out the health-condition questions the 2024 statute now bars. Minnesota plans stopped accepting the prior versions. A saved template from a couple of years ago is the wrong form

Medicaid Comes First, Even With No Medicaid Ambitions

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota’s hard prerequisite

Blue Cross states that a contract request can’t be considered until you’ve enrolled with Minnesota Health Care Programs and received your enrollment or welcome letter
So the state’s largest commercial contract sits behind a Medicaid step. A provider who never plans to see a Medicaid patient still does it. Check this requirement before applying to the commercial network.
There’s a second reason anyway. MHCP enrollment is required before you order, refer, prescribe or bill for a Medicaid member, and a prescription written by a prescriber who isn’t enrolled isn’t covered under fee-for-service MHCP
Practical effect on sequencing: we run the MPSE enrollment first so nothing else queues behind it

45 Days On A Clean File, And 3 Business Days To Tell You It Isn’t

Minn. Stat. 62Q.097, with a 2024 addition worth knowing

A health plan company has to tell you within three business days of finding your application isn’t clean, and decide a clean application within 45 days
One 30-day extension only, and only if it identifies a substantive quality or safety concern
It also has to confirm on request that your application is clean and tell you the date it will decide by. That’s the single most useful sentence to quote when a Minnesota application goes quiet, and we quote it
Subdivision 3, added in 2024, bars a credentialing application from asking about past health conditions, current conditions being treated so they don’t affect your practice, or anything that wouldn’t affect competent, safe and ethical practice. If a question on a form feels wrong, it may be

No Back Pay, And One Plan Says So Out Loud

The counterweight to that clock

Minnesota has no retroactive payment law for the credentialing gap. Some states make a carrier pay you for services delivered while you waited. This one doesn’t
Medica says it doesn’t accept claims for dates of service before credentialing is complete, and Medica now handles credentialing for UCare’s business
So a late application here is unrecoverable rather than merely delayed. That’s the whole argument for filing early and filing complete, because the 45-day clock only starts on a clean file
It also changes how we sequence a start date. We work backwards from when you want to see patients, not forwards from when you signed with us

Where The Delays Happen

Getting On A Panel Isn’t The Same As Getting Paid.

Files rarely stall inside a step. They stall in the gaps between these five, and we work every gap and tell you which one yours is sitting in.

Credentialed›contracted›loaded›connected›payable

Medicaid And Commercial Work Differently Here.

Two Tracks

Most Minnesota practices want both, and here they’re linked, because the Medicaid step gates the biggest commercial contract in the state.

Minnesota Health Care Programs

One State Enrollment, Then A County Map.

MHCP covers Medical Assistance, which is Minnesota’s Medicaid, and MinnesotaCare. Most members sit in managed care through the Prepaid Medical Assistance Program, with fee-for-service still live behind it. Minnesota also runs program lines you won’t see named this way elsewhere: MSHO, MSC+ and SNBC. There’s no statewide behavioral health carve-out vendor. Behavioral health rides with the member’s plan.

How you enrollThrough the MPSE portal, reached from your MN-ITS account. Since June 13, 2026, MN-ITS sign-in runs through LoginMN, and DHS says you can’t log into MN-ITS until your LoginMN registration is complete. Get the NPI from NPPES first, because MHCP won’t take the application without it. DHS asks you to allow 30 days for processing.

Forms you’ll see

DHS-4016 enrollment applicationDHS-4138 provider agreementDHS-8355 MCO in-network agreementDHS-6287 privacy noticeDHS-3864 assurance statement

The Medicare question nobody warns you aboutMost Minnesota mental health professionals are expected to be Medicare-enrolled. If Medicare denied you, MHCP wants the denial letter plus form DHS-3864, resubmitted every 18 months. That’s a Minnesota-specific document with a repeating deadline, so it goes on a calendar.

County-based purchasers are real payersMinnesota is one of the last states with county-owned Joint Powers health plans holding their own Medicaid contracts. PrimeWest Health, South Country Health Alliance and Itasca Medical Care are not optional add-ons in their counties, they’re the local Medicaid payer. Hennepin Health is the only HMO in the state run by a local unit of government. Out-of-state credentialing shops miss all four routinely.

Revalidation is running hotFederal five-year cycle, plus Minnesota’s own Revalidate 2026 push, which required a large group of higher-risk providers to revalidate by May 31, 2026 and disenrolled the ones who missed it. DHS said openly that enrollment requests were running outside its 30-day window because of it. Don’t let a revalidation notice sit.

Commercial

Two Files, Two Boundaries, And The Same Rule About Your Password.

Minnesota’s plan market is unusually nonprofit. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica and UCare are all nonprofits, and until 2017 state law required HMOs here to be nonprofit at all. That’s why the local plans built a shared credentialing collaborative instead of each buying their own vendor, and why so much of the market runs on one application.

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 during your project and get each payer authorized. After that, Credentialing Maintenance keeps it current. If you want us to maintain your profile, you share access securely and change the password when we’re done. Optum requires CAQH registration before you can start in Provider Express, and Aetna and Evernorth credential from it.

Your ApplySmart file works the same wayWe prepare the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application. You review and sign it. Use the current version, because the 2025 reissue killed the old ones. And answer the behavioral health questions carefully: HealthPartners asks applicants to name the age groups, services and verifiable areas of expertise they offer, and that’s the part of the file that argues for you.

Behavioral health has its own doorUnitedHealthcare goes through Optum and Provider Express. Cigna goes through Evernorth. Aetna keeps it in house, on the same request for participation as medical. Blue Cross and HealthPartners handle it in plan. UCare, whose business is moving to Medica, now sends mental health practitioners to Optum for contracting and credentialing, so confirm Medica’s behavioral health route before you file. Applying through the medical door at a carve-out carrier is the most common and most expensive mistake we see.

Network need is a live question hereBlue Cross puts behavioral health in what it calls managed specialties, so a request gets reviewed rather than automatically approved. HealthPartners is a health plan and a care system at the same time, which makes need a real factor. How you present your services and your county coverage matters more in Minnesota than it does in an open-panel state.

Seeing patients in other statesOne Blue Cross Minnesota contract reaches Blue members in other states through BlueCard, and its own contracting area already runs into border counties in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare are national. What you need is a license where the patient is, not another contract. Medicaid is the genuine exception.

Who You’ll Apply To, And How Long It Usually Takes.

Minnesota Payers

These are typical ranges from a complete application, with the 45-day statutory determination in Minn. Stat. 62Q.097 sitting underneath the health plan companies. Payers control their own timelines, so we track them rather than promise them.

Blue Cross And Blue Shield Of Minnesota

The anchor contract, and the one with a prerequisite

Usually: Blue Cross says an approved contract request typically takes 60 to 90 days, depending on whether facility or practitioner credentialing is needed. Confirm at submission
Before anything: MHCP enrollment. No enrollment or welcome letter, no contract review. This is the single most common Minnesota stall
Behavioral health: handled in plan, but classified as a managed specialty, so the request is reviewed rather than automatically approved
Reach: the contracting area is Minnesota plus border counties in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin, and BlueCard carries you to Blue members from other states when you’re licensed there

HealthPartners

A health plan and a care system in one

Usually: HealthPartners asks that applications go in at least 90 days before your start date. You can’t see members or appear in the directory until credentialing is approved, and processing tracks how complete the file is. Recredentialing every three years
Path: the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application for medical and behavioral health alike, and Minnesota clinics are required to submit initial applications through ApplySmart. Out-of-state clinics get an alternate portal route
Answer this one properly: HealthPartners asks behavioral health applicants to name the age groups, services and verifiable areas of expertise they offer. Because it’s also a care system, network need is real, and that answer is your argument

Medica

The biggest mover in the state right now

Usually: credentialed initially and then every three years, on the Minnesota pattern. Medica requires an executed contract before you’re in network and doesn’t accept claims for dates of service before credentialing is complete. Confirm turnaround at submission
Path: ApplySmart with the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application, initial version for new practitioners and the reappointment version for recredentialing
What changed: Medica added PMAP in nine counties on January 1, 2025, then completed the acquisition of UCare’s Medicaid and individual business on January 1, 2026
Watch: confirm which organization your agreement runs through before your next renewal

UCare And UCare Community Health Plan

Read this one carefully, because it moved twice

Now: UCare is no longer accepting practitioner or organization credentialing applications while its business moves to Medica. Confirm the current route at submission
Path: new practitioners follow Medica’s credentialing process, and UCare says mental health practitioners work with Optum for contracting and credentialing
The money point: Medica says it doesn’t accept claims for dates of service before credentialing is complete, so an application that sits is still money you don’t get back
What changed: service area cut in 11 counties on September 1, 2025, exits from Medicare Advantage, Medigap, MSHO and the integrated D-SNP on January 1, 2026, and Medica administering from the same date. Coverage stays UCare-branded for 2026. Treat any UCare instruction older than late 2025 as suspect

UnitedHealthcare And Optum

The exception to Minnesota’s ApplySmart pattern

Usually: 60 to 120 days from a complete application
Path: behavioral health starts in Provider Express. You attest that you meet the criteria, then CAQH registration is required before the online application opens. This is the carrier where your CAQH file does the work
Why it’s near the front: Optum’s Minnesota page lists the network as open for recruitment and names MDs, DOs, PAs and RNs with prescriptive authority as actively sought in all Minnesota counties, plus telemental health, medication-assisted treatment prescribers, and clinicians certified in CTSS or ARMHS. Master’s and doctoral level therapists are sought in a much shorter county list
Watch: UnitedHealthcare left Minnesota’s Medicaid managed care programs on January 1, 2025, so its commercial and Medicaid stories here point in opposite directions

Separate door: Optum Behavioral Health

PreferredOne

The Minnesota name people forget until a claim shows up

Usually: NCQA-accredited credentialing program with recredentialing every three years and notice roughly four to six weeks before your due date. Confirm the initial turnaround at submission
Path: the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application through the collaborative at mncred.org. Same ApplySmart route as the big local plans
Why it’s worth a file: it’s a benefits administrator and network rather than a household-name insurer, and self-funded Minnesota and Upper Midwest employers lease its networks. A card you don’t recognize may reach you through PreferredOne. It also provides network and behavioral health management services for Aspirus Health Plan
Watch: it stopped administering the Minnesota state employee plan on January 1, 2024, so its book looks different than it did a few years ago

Sanford Health Plan Of Minnesota

Off the ApplySmart path entirely

Usually: Sanford runs its own forms rather than the collaborative route, so timing depends on its intake queue. Confirm at submission
Path: the Sanford Provider Hub, not CAQH and not the collaborative. A Contract Request Form first, then a contracts specialist reviews it and may extend an offer, then the Provider Enrollment Application plus an Individual Provider Credentialing Request Form for practitioners billing professional claims
Who needs it: western Minnesota. Its service counties include Becker, Beltrami, Clay, Hubbard, Otter Tail, Pennington, Polk, Nobles, Rock and Wilkin among others, and the network extends into Iowa, North Dakota and South Dakota. Skippable for a Twin Cities practice. Not skippable in Moorhead, Bemidji or Worthington

Aetna

Behavioral health in house, same form as medical

Usually: a request for participation first, then a network-need answer on eligibility, then credentialing from CAQH, then contracting. Commonly 60 to 120 days from start to finish, with recredentialing generally every 36 months
Path: behavioral health professionals use the same Aetna request for participation as medical professionals
Minnesota footnote: the old Allina Health and Aetna Health HMO joint venture is listed by the state as having no enrollment. Don’t confuse that practice or organization with Aetna’s commercial network

Cigna Healthcare And Evernorth

Behavioral health goes through Evernorth

Current application route: In Minnesota, North Dakota, and western Wisconsin, Evernorth directs providers to HealthPartners for managed care contracting. Evernorth handles Employee Assistance Program (EAP) contracting separately. Check the applicable route before applying.
Usually: Evernorth says joining its network can take up to 90 calendar days, with CAQH re-attestation every 120 days
What we do: for a Minnesota practice we take Cigna managed care through HealthPartners, as Evernorth directs, and use the Evernorth portal only for EAP contracting. We last checked that route on October 1, 2026

Separate door: Evernorth Behavioral Health

Two smaller carriers are worth a look depending on geography rather than statewide. Quartz serves five counties in southeast Minnesota, and Sanford covers a wide slice of the west. Neither is a statewide play, but in the right county either can be a meaningful share of a panel. And treat any guide that still lists UnitedHealthcare as a Minnesota Medicaid plan as out of date, because it left all managed care programs on January 1, 2025. Government payers, meaning Medicare and the Medical Assistance and MinnesotaCare plans, are government enrollment, which is $450 per provider for each Medicare, Medicaid or Medicaid plan enrollment and can be bought on its own or with a package.

Carry A Plan We Didn’t List? Add It.

Minnesota has a few routes that don’t look like payers. The Minnesota Advantage Health Plan, the state employee plan under SEGIP, is self-insured and reached through the administrators the state picks. That work moved to Blue Cross and HealthPartners on January 1, 2024, replacing PreferredOne, so if state employees are part of your mix that’s an argument for holding both. PreferredOne networks are leased by self-funded employers and TPAs, so a member card with an employer name on it can still route through PreferredOne. Minnesota Taft-Hartley funds are usually reached by joining a rented network rather than the fund itself, often PreferredOne or a national carrier’s network. You name the plan. We find the real route.

Send These Once And We Can Start.

What We Need From You

Your individual NPIPlus a Type 2 if you bill under a group or business. You need the NPI from NPPES before MHCP will take your enrollment at all.
Active Minnesota license and DEAPlus your DEA certificate where applicable. Optum requires an unrestricted, valid license from its published accepted list.
MPSE access we can work inDelegated access so we can complete your MHCP enrollment, with no password sharing. This one sits on the commercial path too, because Blue Cross won’t review a contract request until your enrollment or welcome letter exists.
An ApplySmart account at the collaborativeSo we can prepare your Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application. Current version only, since the 2025 reissue made the older ones unusable. You review and sign.
CAQH attested and authorizedYou still need it here, just not for everything. Optum requires CAQH registration before you can start in Provider Express, and Aetna and Evernorth credential from it. You attest. We keep it current during your project.
Your Medicare status, or the denial letterMost Minnesota mental health professionals are expected to be Medicare-enrolled. If Medicare denied you, MHCP wants the denial letter plus DHS-3864, resubmitted every 18 months.
The Minnesota counties you’ll serveThe Medicaid plan map is county by county and it changed in 2025 and again in 2026. This drives which plans we go after and in what order, including whether a county-based purchaser is your local Medicaid payer.
Five years of work historyMonth and year, with any gap over six months explained. The Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application asks for it and an unexplained gap stalls the file before the 45-day clock ever starts.
Malpractice certificateYour current certificate naming you, or a carrier-produced roster face sheet.
Legal business name, EIN, and W-9One per tax ID you bill under.

Depending on the services you plan to bill, Minnesota may expect the practice itself to hold its own state certification, separate from your personal license. This state has more of that than most. The terms to know are mental health clinic certification under Minnesota Statutes chapter 245I, and program-level certifications such as ARMHS and CTSS, which certify the agency and recertify it every three years. Substance use disorder treatment programs sit under their own separate regime. A solo prescriber doing outpatient medication management often isn’t in any of that, but a practice planning program services usually is, and Optum’s Minnesota recruiting page even lists ARMHS and CTSS certification as something it looks for. We confirm whether it applies to you before it can hold up a payer contract. We don’t give legal advice and we don’t file it for you.

Physicians and outpatient medical groups, psychiatrists included, have their own physician credentialing page. For everyone else, our credentialing and payer enrollment page covers how we work in Minnesota and the other 49.

You Answer Once. We Do The Paperwork.

How It Works

Buy The Package

Published price and scope. No call needed.

One Onboarding Packet

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

We Prepare Everything

The MPSE enrollment, your Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application, the plan contracts for your counties and your CAQH-based files, built from what you told us.

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 Stand Behind

Payer decisions, timing and rates aren’t ours to promise, and we don’t promise them. Our own work is a different matter. If something we delivered doesn’t work the way we said it would, tell us within 30 days of delivery and we fix it at no cost. If we can’t fix it, or can’t deliver what you bought, we refund the part it affected. Payments aren’t refundable unless the problem is our mistake. A new request, another payer or provider, a change of scope or a new build gets quoted separately.

Everything Stays In Your Name

Your NPPES record, CAQH/DataSpring profile, MPSE account and payer contracts stay in your name, and the paperwork is yours too. You keep all of it if we stop working together.

Minnesota Credentialing Questions

Questions We Get

Do Minnesota Health Plans Use CAQH?

The big local ones don’t. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthPartners, Medica and PreferredOne all run on the Minnesota Credentialing Collaborative’s ApplySmart system using the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application. Optum and Aetna still credential from CAQH, and Sanford Health Plan uses its own forms and its own portal. So you end up maintaining two credentialing files rather than one. Keeping CAQH current and letting the ApplySmart file go stale is the most common Minnesota mistake, and it’s invisible until an application gets returned.

Do I Have To Enroll With Minnesota Medicaid If I Only Want Commercial Patients?

In practice, yes. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota won’t even consider a contract request until you’ve enrolled with Minnesota Health Care Programs and received your enrollment or welcome letter. That puts the state’s largest commercial contract behind a Medicaid step, whether or not you ever want a Medicaid patient. There’s a second reason anyway: MHCP enrollment is required before you order, refer, prescribe or bill for a Medicaid member, and a prescription written by a prescriber who isn’t enrolled isn’t covered under fee-for-service MHCP. We do that step first so nothing queues behind it.

How Long Does Credentialing Take In Minnesota?

Minn. Stat. 62Q.097 gives you a real clock. A health plan company has to tell you within three business days of finding your application isn’t clean, and decide a clean application within 45 days. One 30-day extension is allowed, and only if the plan identifies a substantive quality or safety concern. It also has to confirm on request that your application is clean and tell you the date it’ll decide by, which is the sentence to quote when a file goes quiet. Budget 60 to 120 days per payer from start to finish, because contracting and loading sit outside the statutory decision. The state side is separate: DHS asks you to allow 30 days for MPSE processing and has been running past that during revalidation.

Will A Minnesota Plan Pay Me Back For The Time I Spent Waiting?

No. Minnesota has a strong decision clock and no back-payment provision to go with it. Medica, which now handles credentialing for UCare’s business, says it doesn’t accept claims for dates of service before credentialing is complete. That combination is worth understanding before you set a start date, because here a late application is money you don’t get back rather than money that arrives later. The practical answer is to file early and file complete, since the 45-day clock only runs on a clean file. We work backwards from the date you want to see patients.

Which Medicaid Plans Exist In The County Where I Practice?

The county map moved twice in two years, so check it rather than trusting an older guide. UnitedHealthcare left all Minnesota managed care programs on January 1, 2025. HealthPartners closed to new PMAP, MinnesotaCare and SNBC enrollees on December 1, 2024. UCare cut its service area in 11 counties on September 1, 2025. Medica added nine counties on January 1, 2025 and then completed its acquisition of UCare’s Medicaid and individual business on January 1, 2026. Outside the metro the county-based purchasers matter more than people expect: PrimeWest Health, South Country Health Alliance and Itasca Medical Care are county-owned plans holding their own contracts, and in their counties they’re the local Medicaid payer.

Where Does A UnitedHealthcare Behavioral Health Application Go In Minnesota?

Through Optum, in Provider Express, and it’s the one place in Minnesota where CAQH is the requirement rather than the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application. Provider Express asks you to attest that you meet the criteria and then requires CAQH registration before you can start. Optum’s Minnesota page lists the network as open for recruitment and says it’s actively seeking MDs, DOs, PAs and RNs with prescriptive authority in all Minnesota counties, along with telemental health providers and clinicians certified in CTSS or ARMHS. Master’s and doctoral level therapists are sought in a much shorter county list, so a prescriber walks through a wider door here.

What Happened With UCare And Medica?

Medica completed the acquisition of certain UCare contracts and assets on January 1, 2026, taking on UCare’s Medicaid and individual and family business. Those members stay UCare-branded through 2026 under UCare Community Health Plan while Medica administers them. UCare told providers that existing contracts and processes continue and that the changes affect members rather than your ability to serve active UCare members, so don’t tear anything up. Do confirm which organization your agreement runs through before your next renewal. Separately, UCare exited Medicare Advantage, Medigap, MSHO and its integrated D-SNP on the same date, so an older UCare instruction may be describing a product that no longer exists.

Do You Need My CAQH Password?

No. We’re added as an authorized practice manager, which lets us keep your practice data current during your project and authorize payers. You complete and attest your own profile, and you sign anything that needs your signature. The same boundary applies on the Minnesota side: we prepare your Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application in ApplySmart, and you review and sign it. Use the current version of the form, because Minnesota reissued the applications effective January 1, 2025 and the plans stopped accepting the prior ones.

Keep Reading

Minnesota PMHNP scope of practiceWhat Minnesota allows you to do, separate from who pays you.
Wisconsin credentialingForwardHealth is the enrollment front door, and CAQH is back in charge.
North Dakota credentialingOut-of-state enrollment rules are a real constraint on a telehealth build.
Michigan credentialingCHAMPS enrollment gates the pharmacy claim, even if you never bill Medicaid.
Opening your own practiceBusiness setup, identifiers, payers, EHR, and billing setup.
Adding a provider to your clinicFirst-time credentialing into contracts you already hold.
Changing your business or tax IDMoving panels without breaking the money.

Ready To Bill In Minnesota?

Price it per payer and start with as few as one, from $450 per payer, per provider. Fill out the onboarding packet and we’ll map your MHCP enrollment, your ApplySmart file, the plans that serve your counties and your commercial set.

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Official Pages For Minnesota

Minnesota Health Care Programs Provider Enrollment (MPSE)Enroll or revalidate as a Medicaid provider.Minnesota Statutes 62Q.097 Provider CredentialingThe state's credentialing rules for health insurers.Minnesota Board of NursingNurse practitioner (APRN) licensing.

Where This Comes From

Minnesota Department of Human Services, enrollment with Minnesota Health Care Programs and the MPSE portal verified July 26, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Minnesota Department of Human Services, mental health professional enrollment criteria and forms DHS-4016, DHS-4138, DHS-8355, DHS-6287 and DHS-3864 verified October 1, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Minnesota Department of Human Services, Minnesota Revalidate 2026 and the resulting enrollment backlog verified July 26, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Minnesota Department of Human Services, MHCP provider news and the MN-ITS move to LoginMN FAQ: the MN-ITS login moved to LoginMN on June 13, 2026 verified September 26, 2026
Minnesota Office of the Revisor of Statutes, Minn. Stat. 62Q.097, timely credentialing and the 2024 limits on health-condition questions verified October 1, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Minnesota Credentialing Collaborative, ApplySmart and the Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Application verified July 26, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Hennepin Health, updated Minnesota Uniform Credentialing Applications effective January 1, 2025 verified July 26, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, Join Our Network: the MHCP prerequisite, managed specialties and the contracting area verified July 26, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
UCare, credentialing and recredentialing: UCare is no longer accepting credentialing applications ahead of its move to Medica verified October 1, 2026
Optum Provider Express, Minnesota network need for prescribers in all counties verified October 1, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026
Evernorth Behavioral Health application instructions: individual providers, clinics, facilities, and regional application routes verified October 1, 2026 link checked automatically October 14, 2026

Links checked automatically on October 14, 2026. A source carries that stamp only when its page loaded and had not changed since the date we verified it.

We last reviewed this page on October 1, 2026. Each source listed shows the date we last verified it, and we will review the whole page again by January 18, 2027.

Payer programs, plans and timelines change. Everything here carries a verification date and gets re-checked on a review cycle. We will check these facts again by January 18, 2027. Approval and effective dates are controlled by each payer and by the state, and nothing here promises an approval, a timeline or a rate. This page covers payer operations. It isn’t legal, tax or scope of practice advice.

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