CAQH ProView is the profile that commercial payers read before they will credential you. It is now called the CAQH Provider Data Portal, it is free, and it expires every 120 days. Miss that deadline and your file stops being usable to every plan you authorized.
Three names now point at the same login, which is the first thing to sort out. Below: what the portal holds, what a CAQH number is, how the 120 day clock works, where files actually stall, and the four things a complete profile still does not buy you.
What is CAQH ProView?
CAQH ProView is an online profile where a clinician enters licenses, training, malpractice coverage and practice locations once, then authorizes health plans to read it. CAQH renamed it the CAQH Provider Data Portal. Both names describe the same system at the same address, and payer instructions still use them interchangeably.
The organization behind it changed more than its product name. In January 2026 CAQH converted from a not for profit into a for profit company, and it is now owned by 12 shareholder companies affiliated with health plans, as the American Dental Association reported to its members. On June 7, 2026 the company rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH.
None of that touched your account. DataSpring says portal access, profile data and saved links all carry over, and that the ownership change does not alter who controls the profile or who may read it. What did change is the vocabulary in your inbox. So learn all three words and stop worrying about which one is current.
Worth knowing: DataSpring is the company. CAQH Provider Data Portal is the product. ProView is what the product used to be called and what half the payer emails still say. All three resolve to proview.caqh.org. If a form asks for your “ProView profile” and another asks for your “Provider Data Portal profile,” they want the same thing.
No rule requires a CAQH profile, and about 1,000 organizations ask for one anyway
Participation is voluntary. DataSpring says so plainly, and then notes that more than 1,000 health plans and healthcare organizations have asked their network providers to use the portal. In practice that makes it compulsory by contract rather than by regulation, which is a distinction without much comfort.
The scale is the reason. About 2.5 million providers hold a complete profile, along with more than 100,000 dentists. The portal generates a credentialing application accepted in all 50 states, including the ones with their own mandatory forms, and it collects data to the standards NCQA, URAC and JCAHO expect. That combination is why a payer would rather send you there than mail you a packet.
It costs you nothing. Health plans pay for access; clinicians, group practices and office staff use it free. That is the model DataSpring says its payer ownership makes possible, and the ADA has said it will hold the company to the free arrangement for dentists.
Cost check: the fee is zero and the real price is time. Budget up to two hours for the first profile, plus the hunt for a malpractice face sheet, a DEA certificate and a signed release. Documents get reviewed in roughly 48 hours and bounce for being illegible, undated, unsigned or filed under the wrong document type.
Your CAQH Provider ID arrives before the profile does, and 11 sections come after it
Registration asks for your NUCC grouping, provider type, name, address, practice state, date of birth, email, Social Security number, NPI, DEA number and state license. CAQH emails back a CAQH Provider ID. That number identifies you in the portal for good, and the profile itself opens behind it.
What follows is eleven sections, per the Provider User Guide: personal information, professional IDs, education and training, specialties, practice locations, hospital affiliations, credentialing contacts, professional liability insurance, employment information, professional references and disclosure. Practice locations is the one that swallows an afternoon if you work at more than two sites.
Your Type 1 NPI gets validated against NPPES by name and number, so a middle initial that differs between the two systems becomes a required fix. If you are not sure which number you filed where, our explainer on which NPI belongs on which line settles it, and the free NPI lookup tool shows what NPPES currently holds on you.
Common mistake: attesting to a half finished profile to clear the reminder banner. Two fields lock permanently the moment you first attest, your Social Security number and your date of birth. Get a digit wrong and you are calling the help desk, not editing a form.
The profile expires every 120 days, and only Illinois gets 180
Attestation is a calendar obligation, not a response to change. You confirm the profile every 120 days whether anything moved or not. Illinois providers get 180. Past the deadline the portal marks your status Expired, and authorized plans can no longer use the file for credentialing.
There is a second, gentler rhythm layered on top. Since December 2015 the company has emailed quarterly directory reminders on behalf of participating plans. Answer those and you are effectively re-attesting every 90 days, comfortably inside the window. Ignore them and the 120 day rule is the one that bites.
Practice locations carry their own countdown. The portal flags a location as coming due at 60 days since its last confirmation and past due at 90. A location a plan asked you to review, left untouched for 90 days, is reported back to that plan as no response, and plans use that to decide what appears in their directory.
Deadline watch: the reminder goes to the primary email on the profile and nowhere else. Set your own calendar alert at day 90, not day 115, so there is room to chase an expired insurance face sheet before the window closes.
The CAQH clock runs six times faster than a state license renewal
Every credential a physician maintains renews on a slower cycle than this one. A state medical license usually runs two years. Medicare revalidation runs five. CAQH asks every four months, and it is the only one of the three that lapses without a letter arriving in the post.
A state board writes to you. CMS writes to you. CAQH sends an email to whatever address was on the profile the last time somebody updated it.
That asymmetry explains most lapsed profiles we see. A board renewal is an event with a fee attached and a licence certificate at the end of it. An attestation is a button. Nobody schedules a button.
From the licensing desk: in our experience the profile is rarely what stalls a file. Ownership is. From the applications we process, the pattern is dull and consistent: the reminder went to a practice manager who left eight months ago, nobody inherited the login, and a payer flags stale data weeks later while claims sit. We see the same three gaps behind it, an unowned primary email, an expired malpractice document nobody replaced, and practice locations that were never confirmed after a move.
If that describes your practice, this is the part worth handing off. Our team handles payer enrollment end to end, including the attestation calendar and the document chase behind it, alongside the state licensing applications that feed the same profile.
A complete CAQH profile is not credentialing, and Medicare never looks at it
Attesting to a profile authorizes plans to read your data. It does not credential you, does not enroll you with Medicare, does not create a contract and does not put you in a directory. Each of those is a separate decision made by somebody else on their own timetable.
| Task | Does the CAQH portal do it? | What actually does |
|---|---|---|
| Supply your credentials to commercial plans | Yes, once you authorize them | The portal itself |
| Generate a state credentialing application | Yes, accepted in all 50 states | The portal itself |
| Credential you with a plan | No | Each plan’s own committee |
| Enroll you with Medicare | No | PECOS, form CMS-855I |
| Create a payer contract | No | Contracting, separately negotiated |
| Verify your license at the source | No, the data is self reported | Primary source verification |
Medicare is the one that catches people out. Enrollment runs through PECOS, a federal system that never reads your CAQH profile, and it revalidates on its own five year cycle. Commercial recredentialing is different again, on a 36 month clock set by the plan, which is worth understanding alongside how NCQA rules time your recredentialing.
| CAQH Provider Data Portal: quick reference | Current |
|---|---|
| Former name | CAQH ProView |
| Operator | DataSpring, powered by CAQH |
| Address | proview.caqh.org |
| Cost to the clinician | Free |
| Attestation cycle | 120 days, 180 days in Illinois |
| Directory confirmation email | Quarterly |
| Status past the deadline | Expired |
| Providers with a complete profile | About 2.5 million |
| Organizations requesting it | More than 1,000 |
| State coverage of the application | All 50 states |
| Time to complete the first profile | Up to 2 hours |
| Document review turnaround | About 48 hours |
| Help desk | 888-599-1771 |
Frequently asked questions
What does CAQH stand for?
CAQH stands for Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare. The legal entity still carries that name, but the organization now trades as DataSpring, powered by CAQH. Almost nobody uses the full name in practice, and payers just say CAQH.
What is a CAQH number?
A CAQH number, properly the CAQH Provider ID, is the unique identifier the portal assigns you at registration. Health plans use it to find your profile, and you need it to recover a forgotten username or reset a password.
How do I find my CAQH number?
The portal has a self lookup. Enter your first and last name plus your Type 1 NPI or date of birth, answer three security questions, and it returns your CAQH Provider ID. Health plan onboarding emails also carry it.
How often does the CAQH database require provider attestation?
Every 120 days, or every 180 days if you practice in Illinois. The clock runs from your last attestation regardless of whether anything changed. Miss it and the portal marks your status Expired until you attest again.
Is CAQH mandatory?
No. Participation is voluntary by rule. But more than 1,000 health plans and healthcare organizations ask their network providers to use the portal, so for most clinicians billing commercial insurance it is compulsory by contract rather than by regulation.
Do nurse practitioners need a CAQH profile?
Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dentists and other licensed clinicians all use the same portal as physicians. Whether you need one depends on the plans you bill, not your credential. If a payer asks for CAQH, that answers it.
What is the CAQH Provider Data Portal?
It is the current name for the system formerly called CAQH ProView. Same login, same profile, same address at proview.caqh.org. CAQH renamed the service, and the June 2026 DataSpring rebrand did not change provider accounts.
The Bottom Line
Three names, one login, one deadline. Learn the 120 day clock and put it in the same calendar as your license renewal, because it comes around six times as often and nobody mails you a warning. Everything else about CAQH follows from keeping that one date.
Our team handles payer enrollment end to end: building and attesting the CAQH Provider Data Portal profile, keeping the 120-day clock, and chasing the malpractice and license documents before a plan flags them. We work with physicians, PAs, and nurses across all 50 states.
This article provides general guidance only. Credentialing and payer enrollment requirements change frequently and vary by plan and by state. Always verify current requirements with the CAQH Provider Data Portal at proview.caqh.org and with each health plan before relying on them. Last fact-checked: September 7, 2026.
Written by Medicallicensing Team · Reviewed by David Ivaniuk, CEO Medicallicensing · Last updated: September 7, 2026 · Last fact-checked: September 7, 2026
