Credentialing & Enrollment · Payers

Cigna Credentialing: How to Join the Cigna Healthcare Network

Who qualifies, Cigna’s steps in order, the forms and portals by name, the timelines Cigna publishes, Evernorth behavioral health, and how to check status.

Cigna credentialing is the process Cigna Healthcare uses to verify a provider's license, training, malpractice coverage and history before adding them to its network: you call 1 (800) 88CIGNA, receive an application packet, submit through CAQH, and Cigna's credentialing committee decides, which Cigna says typically takes 45 to 60 days. Behavioral health providers join through Evernorth Behavioral Health instead, and Cigna Medicare Advantage plans are now HealthSpring, a separate company with its own application.

Cigna calls this “joining the network” on its provider site; credentialing is the verification half, and the signed agreement is the contracting half. For how the two differ in general, see what provider credentialing is; for every payer at once, see how to get credentialed with insurance companies.

Updated 2026-10-23. Every Cigna fact below is from Cigna's, Evernorth's or HealthSpring's own pages, read that day. Reviewed by Jacob Greenberg, ClaimCarePro.

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Cigna’s credentialing steps, in order

The medical route, as Cigna publishes it.

Cigna medical credentialing steps
Step	What happens
1. Call Cigna	1 (800) 88CIGNA (882-4462), credentialing option. Cigna screens against its basic guidelines before sending anything.
2. Receive the packet	If you qualify, Cigna emails an application packet and agreement.
3. Get CAQH ready	Authorize Cigna on your CAQH profile; status must read Initial Profile Complete or Re-attestation.
4. Submit	Through CAQH, One Healthport/Medversant (attested within 100 days), or a state application where required, plus any Cigna forms.
5. Verification and committee	Cigna verifies the file and presents it to the health plan credentialing committee (community physicians and the medical director).
6. Decision and load	Welcome letter within 60 days of the decision; directories and claim systems usually updated within 10 business days of approval.

Sources: Cigna's credentialing page and its credentialing and recredentialing page. Note that the welcome letter is not the same as a fully loaded record; the 10-business-day load into claim systems is what lets claims process as in-network.

Who can apply: Cigna’s credentialing requirements

Cigna credentialing for providers starts with meeting its published criteria. For the medical network, Cigna lists:

A valid, unrestricted state medical or professional license.
A valid, unrestricted DEA certificate for each state you practice in, and a state CDS certificate where the state requires one. No DEA? Cigna's DEA Certificate form goes to fax 1 (877) 391-8228.
Privileges at a Cigna-participating hospital, or the Hospital Coverage Agreement form (same fax).
Board certification (ABMS or AOA) status, and verified education and training.
Five years of work history, with any gap over six months explained.
Disclosure of prior sanctions by regulators and CMS.
Malpractice claims history and adequate insurance; Cigna recommends $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 aggregate.

Cigna's recredentialing page adds an on-site visit for primary care physicians, OB/GYNs and high-volume behavioral health specialists. Before the call, have an individual NPI and a group NPI where you bill as a group; our page on NPI Type 1 vs Type 2 explains which goes where.

How to get credentialed with Cigna: the application, forms and portals

Which door you use depends on your line of business.

Cigna credentialing routes by provider type
Who	Application	Published timeline	Contact
Medical and other professional providers	Phone screen, then CAQH, One Healthport/Medversant or state application	Typically 45 to 60 days	1 (800) 882-4462 · PSSCentral@Cigna.com
Behavioral health, individual	Evernorth Provider Portal → Evernorth Behavioral Health Provider Information Form	Up to 90 calendar days	BehavioralProviderRecruitment@Evernorth.com · 1 (800) 926-2273
Behavioral health clinic (4+ licensed providers, one TIN and location)	Clinic Information Form by email	Not published	BehavioralOutpatientClinic@Evernorth.com
Medicare Advantage (now HealthSpring, HCSC)	HealthSpring online Provider Data Intake form, CAQH data	Not published	healthspring.com/providers

The Cigna provider credentialing application is not a single form you download. After the phone screen, Cigna emails a packet, and the credentialing data itself comes from one of three places: your CAQH profile, a One Healthport/Medversant profile attested in the last 100 days, or a paper state application where the state mandates one. Most providers use CAQH; our guide to CAQH and the CAQH number covers setup and the 120-day attestation.

Once you are in network, day-to-day work runs through the Cigna for Health Care Professionals portal(cignaforhcp.cigna.com), where contracted providers also request directory changes.

The fastest way to shorten any of this is to have every document ready before the first call. Our credentialing intake list is the exact set Cigna and the other payers ask for, in one place.

How long does it take to get credentialed with Cigna?

Cigna says medical credentialing “typically takes 45 to 60 days to complete,” and that approved providers are usually loaded to directories and claim systems within 10 business days (Cigna). If accepted, the welcome letter arrives within 60 days of the committee's decision, or sooner where state law requires (Cigna). Evernorth says joining its behavioral network can take up to 90 calendar days (Evernorth).

Those windows count from a complete, verifiable file. Many guides online quote longer numbers; those are vendor estimates, not Cigna's. What lengthens a Cigna file in our experience is not the committee but the back-and-forth before it: a CAQH profile Cigna cannot read, or a document that does not match. Timelines for every major payer are compared in our credentialing timelines guide.

Cigna behavioral health credentialing (Evernorth Behavioral Health)

Cigna Behavioral Health became Evernorth Behavioral Health, Inc. on September 1, 2021.

Cigna behavioral health credentialing runs through Evernorth, not through the medical phone line. For an individual therapist, counselor, psychologist or psychiatric prescriber, Evernorth's join-the-network page sets out three steps:

Register or log in at the Evernorth Provider Portal (provider.evernorth.com).
Get the Contracting entitlement. Your website access manager assigns it under My Practice > Manage User Access; log out and back in afterward.
Complete the Evernorth Behavioral Health Provider Information Form under My Practice > Contracting. It must be finished in one session; progress cannot be saved, so gather everything first.

Evernorth requires an independent license in your practice state; a DEA for each location if you prescribe, at least 60 days from expiring; liability coverage of $1M/$3M for physicians and psychiatric nurses with prescriptive authority and $1M/$1M for other providers (lower recommended minimums apply in Florida and Texas); a CAQH profile attested within 120 days (180 in Illinois) with Evernorth authorized; five years of work history; a CV dated within two years if you use one; and a W-9 for each TIN. The W-9, license, DEA, education, insurance and history must match what CAQH says.

A clinic, defined by Evernorth as four or more independently licensed providers sharing a TIN, location and administrative staff, uses the Clinic Information Form instead, emailed to BehavioralOutpatientClinic@Evernorth.com. Facilities billing on a UB-04 (inpatient, residential, PHP, IOP, detox) use the Facility Information Form. Provisional credentialing is considered case by case for individuals only. Questions go to BehavioralProviderRecruitment@Evernorth.com with your NPI or TIN; portal technical help is 1 (888) 736-7499. Evernorth also notes that Maryland, Ohio and Washington applicants must use the portal as of September 1, 2026.

Cigna Medicare Advantage is now HealthSpring

Searches for “Cigna Medicare provider enrollment” or “Cigna HealthSpring provider enrollment application” now lead to a different company. The Cigna Group completed the sale of its Medicare Advantage, stand-alone prescription drug, Medicare supplemental and CareAllies businesses to Health Care Service Corporation on March 19, 2025 (Cigna Form 10-Q). Those plans now run as HealthSpring, whose provider site says, “You've known us as Cigna Medicare.”

HealthSpring's network participation page asks medical providers to apply through its online Provider Data Intake form; it reads credentialing data from CAQH (authorize HealthSpring separately), uses Verisys to verify it, and recredentials every three years. Behavioral health providers are routed to Evernorth. Original Medicare is a third, separate enrollment through PECOS, covered in what PECOS is.

How to check your Cigna credentialing status

Email PSSCentral@Cigna.com with the provider's full name and tax ID, or call 1 (800) 88CIGNA (882-4462) and choose the credentialing option (Cigna). For behavioral health, track the application in the Evernorth Provider Portal, which notifies you when more information is needed.

Write down every answer: the date, the name of the person you spoke to, and the reference number. When a file stalls, that log is how you show Cigna what it was told and when. It is exactly what we keep on every application, every week, until the effective date is in writing.

Why Cigna applications stall

In our casework, credentialing stalls most often on bad data from the providers, not on the payer.

Common causes of delay in Cigna credentialing
Cause	What it looks like
CAQH not readable by Cigna	The profile is complete but Cigna was never authorized, or the status is not Initial Profile Complete / Re-attestation because the 120-day attestation lapsed.
Old or mismatched address	The practice location on CAQH, the application and the state license record do not match, often by a suite number or a previous office.
NPI or TIN mismatch	Individual and group NPIs swapped, or the legal name and tax ID read differently on the W-9, the packet and CAQH. Cigna’s status line itself asks for the TIN.
Expired document on file	A renewed license, DEA or malpractice certificate was never re-uploaded, so the copy at verification is expired.
No hospital privileges, no form	The provider admits nowhere and the Hospital Coverage Agreement form was not sent with the file.
Work-history gap	Five years of history is required and gaps over six months need a written explanation; a missing one becomes a question and a wait.
Wrong door	A behavioral health clinician applying on the medical route, or a Medicare Advantage request sent to Cigna instead of HealthSpring.

Each one turns into an information request and a file that waits for the answer. The fix is a side-by-side check of CAQH, the Cigna packet, the state license record and the W-9 before anything is submitted.

Cigna recredentialing: every three years, through CAQH

Cigna recredentials every three years in most states, under the same criteria as initial credentialing (Cigna). It emails providers to log into CAQH and verify and sign their information, sends up to three reminders, and says that not doing so “will result in termination.” A lapsed CAQH attestation can therefore cost a contract you already have. The other cycles that run alongside it are on recredentialing and credentialing maintenance.

Want ClaimCarePro to handle Cigna?

We prepare and submit the Cigna application, set up or clean up CAQH, file the Evernorth or HealthSpring application where that is the right door, and follow up with the payer every week, logging the rep, date and reference number, until the effective date is in writing. Flat, published prices: $250 per payer application, per provider; CAQH setup $250; re-credentialing $250; maintenance $99 per provider per year; and a new-practice bundle at $1,750 per provider ($1,400 for each additional provider on the same group and payers). Our team brings 30+ years combined experience. Details are on credentialing services, and every other payer is on the payer credentialing hub.

Cigna credentialing questions, answered

How do I get credentialed with Cigna?

Call Cigna at 1 (800) 88CIGNA (882-4462) and choose the credentialing option. If you meet Cigna’s basic guidelines, Cigna emails an application packet. You then submit through your CAQH profile (authorized for Cigna and showing Initial Profile Complete or Re-attestation), through One Healthport/Medversant, or on a state application where your state requires one. Cigna verifies the file and its credentialing committee decides.

How long does it take to get credentialed with Cigna?

Cigna says medical credentialing “typically takes 45 to 60 days to complete,” and that once approved, your information is usually loaded to directories and claim systems within 10 business days. Evernorth Behavioral Health says joining its network can take up to 90 calendar days. The clock in practice starts when the file is complete, so missing documents add time.

Does Cigna use CAQH for credentialing?

Yes. Cigna accepts the CAQH profile as the application. Authorize Cigna to view it, and make sure the status reads Initial Profile Complete or Re-attestation. Cigna also uses CAQH for recredentialing: it emails you to verify and sign your CAQH data, and its page says not doing so will result in termination.

How do I check my Cigna credentialing status?

Email PSSCentral@Cigna.com with the provider’s full name and tax ID (TIN), or call 1 (800) 88CIGNA (882-4462) and choose the credentialing option. For Evernorth behavioral health applications, status is tracked in the Evernorth Provider Portal, which also notifies you if more information is needed.

How do behavioral health providers join Cigna?

Through Evernorth Behavioral Health, which Cigna Behavioral Health became on September 1, 2021. Individual providers register on the Evernorth Provider Portal, get the Contracting entitlement, and complete the Evernorth Behavioral Health Provider Information Form under My Practice > Contracting, in one session. Clinics and facilities use separate forms sent by email.

Do I need hospital privileges to join Cigna?

Cigna lists privileges at a Cigna-participating hospital among its medical requirements. If you do not have them, Cigna provides a Hospital Coverage Agreement form, faxed to 1 (877) 391-8228. A provider without a DEA certificate uses Cigna’s DEA Certificate form, sent to the same fax number.

Is Cigna Medicare Advantage the same application?

No longer. The Cigna Group sold its Medicare Advantage business to Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), a sale it completed on March 19, 2025. Those plans now operate as HealthSpring, which asks medical providers to apply through its own online Provider Data Intake form. A Cigna commercial contract and a HealthSpring Medicare Advantage contract are separate.

How often does Cigna recredential providers?

Every three years in most states, under the same criteria as initial credentialing, according to Cigna’s credentialing and recredentialing page. Your CAQH profile also has to stay attested in between, which CAQH sets at every 120 days (180 in Illinois).

Can I see Cigna patients before credentialing is finished?

Cigna’s medical credentialing pages describe no provisional option, so plan to bill Cigna only once you have the approval and an effective date. Evernorth Behavioral Health says it considers provisional credentialing case by case for providers who meet its regulatory and network requirements.

Sources

Primary sources, each read 2026-10-23.

$250 per payer application, per provider. Weekly follow-up until the effective date.

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Updated 2026-10-23. Reviewed by Jacob Greenberg, ClaimCarePro.