TRICARE Credentialing: How to Become a TRICARE Provider in the East or West Region

TRICARE credentialing is a two-step process run by your regional contractor: first certification, which makes a provider “TRICARE-authorized” and able to file claims, then, for providers who want to join the network, credentialing and a signed contract. In the East Region, which includes Florida, the contractor is Humana Military; in the West Region it is TriWest Healthcare Alliance.

Most of what is written about TRICARE credentialing blurs those two steps, and the difference decides which patients you can see and how you are paid. This page covers both regions, what each contractor publishes, and what holds applications up.

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

1. Confirm your region by ZIP code on tricare.mil/East. The region follows the practice location, not the provider's home.
2. Check eligibility for your provider type. TRICARE pays only the provider types its policy lists. Physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, psychologists, social workers, counselors, therapists and behavior analysts each have their own application; chiropractors do not, because TRICARE does not cover chiropractic care.
3. Have the basics ready: individual and group NPI, tax ID and W-9, the state license for every state you will see patients in, and practice locations exactly as they appear on the license and NPPES. Our NPI Type 1 vs Type 2 page covers which number goes where.
4. Submit the certification application for the provider type to your contractor, with all attachments. Humana Military collects clinic or group information inside each practitioner's application, and one application can list locations in several states.
5. Track it in Humana Military's certification status tracker or with TriWest, and keep the certification letter. At this point the provider is TRICARE-authorized, non-network, and can file claims.
6. If you want the network, submit the network request: Humana Military's join-the-network form in the East or TriWest's provider contract request form in the West. TriWest's form asks for your CAQH number, so the CAQH profile should be complete and attested first (CAQH explained).
7. Complete credentialing and sign the contract. The contractor verifies education, board status, license, background and malpractice history, then sends a contract. Network status starts with the contract, not with certification.
8. Keep it current: recertify after a move to a new state or two years without TRICARE claims, and expect network re-credentialing every three years in the West.

In the East you get credentialed with TRICARE by certifying each provider through Humana Military first, then asking to join its network if your specialty is one it is taking. Humana Military's certification applications page lists a separate application for each provider type (physician MD and DO, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, physical and occupational therapist, speech pathologist, psychologist, social worker, mental health counselor, behavior analyst and more), plus applications for facilities. Most are submitted online; the telemedicine-only application goes by fax or mail. A copy of the license is always required.

The network is not open to everyone right now. When we read Humana Military's join-the-network form on October 23, 2026, it said Humana Military “is currently not accepting requests to join the medical, surgical or ancillary network,” and asked that only autism, psychiatry, mental health and substance abuse providers complete it, one entry per tax ID. For a Florida medical practice today, that makes non-network TRICARE-authorized status the working route: you can treat TRICARE Select, Reserve Select and TRICARE For Life patients and be paid at the TRICARE allowable charge. Contractors reopen networks by need, so check the form again before you decide.

For a practice already in network, adding a new provider runs through provider self-service, and Humana Military's FAQ says credentialing documents go to the TRICARE Community Liaison for your area by secure message from provider self-service.

The only published figures cover certification, not network credentialing. Humana Military says paper certification applications take “approximately 90 days” and that if more than 90 days have passed you should check provider self-service, then contact your TRICARE Community Liaison (Humana Military certification FAQ, June 2026). Online applications can be followed in its certification status tracker. TriWest says a complete behavior technician application is processed within 10 days.

Neither contractor publishes how long network credentialing and contracting take after that, and we do not quote the 60-to-120-day figures you will see on vendor sites, because no contractor stands behind them. What reliably adds time is a file that comes back with a question: a missing attachment, a mismatched address, an expired document. How payer timelines compare more broadly is in our Florida credentialing timelines guide.

Behavioral health is where the East network is open: Humana Military's network form currently takes autism, psychiatry, mental health and substance abuse providers. Three rules from its certification FAQ catch behavioral health practices:

• Marriage and family therapists, Autism Corporate Service Providers and most institutions must sign a participation agreement, network or not, and accept the TRICARE allowable charge as payment in full.
• Every ABA clinic is an Autism Corporate Service Provider and files one ACSP application per tax ID, not one per location.
• Behavior analysts, assistant behavior analysts and behavior technicians each have their own certification application. In the West, TriWest processes a complete behavior technician application within 10 days.

Telehealth-only practices use Humana Military's separate telemedicine-only application, which is faxed or mailed rather than submitted online.