What Is CAQH? The CAQH Number, DataSpring and Re-Attestation, Explained

CAQH is the organization behind the CAQH Provider Data Portal (formerly CAQH ProView), the free online profile where a provider enters credentialing data once and authorizes health plans to pull it, which reduces, though it does not always replace, each plan's own application. Since June 7, 2026, the organization has operated as DataSpring, powered by CAQH. The portal did not move: same login at proview.caqh.org, same profile, same CAQH ID.

If a payer just asked for your CAQH number, or told you your CAQH is out of date, this page answers the questions in the order people ask them. For the whole enrollment sequence, see how to get credentialed with insurance companies.

Last updated October 16, 2026. Reviewed by Jacob Greenberg, ClaimCarePro.

For a provider, CAQH is one profile that replaces a stack of near-identical applications. You enter your licenses, education and training, work history, malpractice coverage and history, practice locations and identification numbers, upload the supporting documents, and choose which health plans may read it. CAQH's own provider quick reference guide lists the documents to have ready: CV, license, DEA certificate, state controlled-substance certificate, W-9, malpractice face sheet, and a summary of any pending or settled malpractice cases.

Plans then pull the profile when they credential you and again when they recredential. Aetna, for example, says it sends a CAQH registration kit within 10 business days of an application request (Aetna FAQ). Medicare does not use CAQH; it enrolls providers through PECOS, explained in what PECOS is.

1. Check you do not already have one. Search your email for a CAQH welcome message, and ask any practice or plan you have worked with.
2. By invitation: a health plan, hospital or other participating organization adds you to its roster, and you receive a welcome letter with your CAQH Provider ID.
3. Or self-register on the provider portal at proview.caqh.org; the CAQH Provider ID arrives in a welcome email.
4. Register the account with that ID, verify your identity, and set your username, password and security questions.
5. Complete every section, then use Review and “Correct Errors” to clear each required fix.
6. Upload the supporting documents and confirm none show as missing or expired.
7. Authorize the plans you are applying to. If a plan does not appear, ask it to add you to its provider roster.
8. Attest. Only an attested profile is available to the plans you authorized.

CAQH's guide suggests allowing about two hours for a first profile, and you can save and return. Our credentialing intake list is the same document set, organized so nothing is hunted for mid-profile.

“CAQH credentialing” is shorthand for credentialing with the payers that read your data from CAQH. CAQH itself approves no one. Its guide says that once your information is available, you “will need to check with each individual organization to determine your credentialing status.” Each plan runs its own primary-source verification, its own committee and its own contract, with its own effective date.

So a complete, attested, authorized profile is the starting line, not the finish. What each payer publishes about the time after that is in our credentialing timelines guide.