Every commercial payer in the United States pulls credentialing data from CAQH ProView instead of collecting it themselves. That works as long as the provider's ProView profile is current — but if the most recent attestation is more than 120 days old, the payer's automated pull will fail and the file will sit in a queue until somebody at the practice logs back into CAQH.
This is the rule that quietly slows down more payer enrollments than any other. Here is what the 120-day window actually means and how to stay ahead of it.
What CAQH ProView is
CAQH ProView is a free, web-based provider profile maintained by the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare. Providers enter their demographic, education, licensure, work history, and malpractice information once, then explicitly authorize each payer to pull from the profile. It is the de-facto national application for U.S. commercial payer credentialing.
The 120-day re-attestation rule
CAQH requires the provider to re-attest that every piece of information in the profile is still accurate every 120 days. Re-attestation is a one-click step inside the ProView dashboard — provided nothing has actually changed. If something has changed, the provider must update it first, then attest.
If the 120-day window lapses, three things happen:
- The profile is marked "Expired Attestation" inside ProView.
- Payers attempting to pull the profile receive an error or stale response. Most payers' automation simply skips expired profiles, so the enrollment stalls without anyone being notified.
- A few specific elements (uploaded documents, authorizations) can drop out of the payer-visible view entirely.
Why payers actually enforce it
NCQA's credentialing standards (CR 3) require that the application a payer credentials from is current — historically defined as within 180 days of the credentialing committee decision. The 120-day CAQH window gives payers and CVOs a comfortable buffer to pull the profile, run primary-source verification, and convene a committee before the application ages out.
A 121-day-old attestation is not technically illegal — but it forces the payer to either chase the provider for an updated attestation or delay the credentialing decision. Most automated systems simply pause.
A re-attestation cadence that actually works
The trap is that "every 120 days" is not "every quarter" — it is slightly less. A profile attested on January 1 expires on May 1, not April 1. If you re-attest on a strict 90-day calendar, you'll always be inside the window. Here is a simple cadence:
- Quarterly reminder. Set a calendar reminder for the first business day of each quarter to re-attest every provider on the roster.
- Re-attest in ProView. If nothing has changed, this is a one-click confirmation per provider.
- Authorize new payers. While the profile is open, authorize any newly contracted payers to pull from it.
- Document the attestation date. Save a screenshot or export of the new attestation date in the provider's credentialing file.
Special cases
Locum tenens and short-term hires
Locum providers tend to have stale profiles because they update them only when an agency asks. Re-attest the profile before submitting any new payer authorization — otherwise the payer will see expired data even if you just authorized them yesterday.
Providers in transition
When a provider changes practice addresses, malpractice carriers, or adds a new specialty, update the profile before re-attesting. Re-attesting an out-of-date profile signs you up to a misrepresentation you may not want on the record.
Group rosters
CAQH does not have a true bulk-attest function for groups. Each provider has to attest under their own login. The practical workaround is a shared task list with a target date for each provider; some practices designate a single MSP as the CAQH point of contact for the whole group.
How to recover an expired profile
If you discover an expired profile mid-enrollment, the fix is fast but not instant:
- The provider logs into ProView and reviews each section.
- Any out-of-date fields are corrected.
- The provider clicks attest.
- Most payers re-attempt the pull on a daily or weekly schedule — enrollment will resume on the next pull, but you should also notify the payer's credentialing contact so they manually reschedule.
Where this fits
Lapsed CAQH attestations are the single most common cause of the mysterious 30-day delay that nobody can explain mid-enrollment. For the full picture of what else can stall an enrollment, see our payer enrollment timeline.
CredentialTrack Pro tracks every provider's CAQH attestation date, warns at 90 days, and escalates at 110 — so the first time you hear about it is not from a confused payer rep. See CredentialTrack for group practices or our pricing.