CAQH Attestation and the 120-Day Rule

If you have ever had a payer enrollment stall for a reason that seemed to have nothing to do with the provider's qualifications, there is a decent chance the culprit was a lapsed attestation. The CAQH profile is widely used by health plans as a shared source of provider information, and it only counts as trustworthy when the provider has recently confirmed that the data is accurate. That confirmation is the attestation, and it expires on a recurring cycle.

In CAQH ProView, a provider attests that the information in their profile is true and complete, and that attestation does not last forever. After roughly 120 days, the system considers the profile due for re-attestation, prompting the provider to review their data and confirm it again. The exact timing and reminders can vary, so the practical takeaway is not to memorize a number but to treat attestation as something that must be refreshed several times a year rather than set once and forgotten.

Why does this matter so much downstream? Many plans will not pull or rely on a profile that is not in an attested state. So even if a provider's licenses, education, and work history are all flawless, a profile that has quietly fallen out of attestation can read as incomplete to the plan, holding up payer enrollment or a re-credentialing cycle. The provider has done nothing wrong substantively; they simply missed a confirmation click, and the file waits.

The most common reasons attestation lapses are mundane and entirely avoidable. Reminder emails go to an address the provider no longer checks. A document referenced in the profile expires, which can block attestation until it is updated. Or the provider assumes that because nothing about their practice changed, there is nothing to do, not realizing that attestation is a periodic affirmation rather than a response to change. Each of these is preventable with a little structure.

The fix is proactive monitoring. Rather than waiting for CAQH's own reminders, track each provider's attestation date yourself and prompt them well before the deadline. Keep supporting documents, such as malpractice coverage and licenses, current so that nothing blocks the re-attestation when the time comes. Designate a single owner who watches these dates across all your providers, and the entire problem largely disappears. For a fuller walkthrough of the profile and how it feeds plan enrollment, our complete guide to CAQH covers the surrounding workflow in depth. Treat attestation as routine maintenance, and you remove one of the most frustrating, least necessary sources of delay in the whole process.