CAQH

Headway partners with CAQH (Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare) to make your credentialing process as smooth as possible.

Instead of having to copy your information twice (once into CAQH and once into our form), we pre-load your CAQH information for you into our form. Additionally, to ensure that we collect your information accurately and completely, our form will notify you when there are elements missing from your CAQH account that will need to be added in order for our insurance partners to credential you.

You can use this article to guide you through filling out any missing information in your CAQH profile.

 

About CAQH

The Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) is a free online application used in the credentialing process with insurance payers. In order to get you credentialed, payers will pull information from your CAQH account.

If the information looks incomplete or does not meet the payers’ requirements, your credentialing process could be extended for weeks, and could even be denied by payers. That’s why our system reviews your CAQH account during the intake process to make sure it is ready to go!

As a note, CAQH is 100% free; you will never have to pay for this service.

 

Creating a CAQH account

If you do not have a CAQH account, you will need to create one in order to be credentialed with insurance.

• You will need the following materials:
  • Current malpractice insurance policy, and future one if current policy will expire in the next 30 days
  • State license
  • DEA certificate, if you are a prescriber of controlled substances
  • CDS certificate, if you are a prescriber of controlled substances in a state that requires CDS licensure: DC, IL, MD, MA, MI (MD / DO only), NJ

 

Filling out your account

1. You will be prompted to answer a number of required questions in the Profile Data section of the account
2. Once you complete that section, navigate to the Documents section of your account and complete all required documents
   
   

   At this point, you must upload all required documents to your CAQH account. Your account cannot be processed by Headway until you complete this step.

3. Once you have uploaded all of the documents (this will typically include your malpractice policy and state authorization forms but may require other documents), you need to re-attest your account again.

For first-time users of CAQH, it will take approximately 2 business days for CAQH to process your documents. You can begin the Headway credentialing process once the documents have been approved by CAQH. If you try to link your account to your Headway intake form before the CAQH account is complete, you will receive an error message. Once the documents section has been approved, you will be able to get started on the Headway intake form by linking your NPI and CAQH account.

If you are experiencing issues with uploading your documents, please reach out directly to CAQH support. 

 

Adding Education Details in CAQH

This takes most providers around 5 minutes to complete.

 

Navigate to your CAQH account

1. Select Profile Data > Education & Professional Training.
2. Click the red Add button next to Enter an education record and below the Education sub-header.
   
3. Enter in all the required fields that are marked with a red asterisk (*).

   Education records

   The only education record that CAQH needs is your highest completed degree. For example, if you have a BA and an MA, only the MA will be required for your credentialing process.
   
   Please do not include any degrees that you have not completed.

   
4. When you are done, select Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.
   

 

Adding Employment Details in CAQH

This takes most providers around 5 minutes to complete.

 

You’ll need to account for the previous 5 years of employment history in your CAQH application. Our insurance partners have different requirements for this step, depending on your state. If you're in

Illinois:

You’ll need to provide an explanation for any work gaps longer than 30 days.

North Carolina:

You’ll need to provide an explanation for any work gaps longer than 90 days.

Any other state:

You’ll need to provide an explanation for any work gaps longer than 6 months.

 

Navigate to your CAQH account

1. Select Profile Data > Employment Information.
2. Click the red Add button next to Add an Employment Information Record and below the Employment Records sub-header.
   
3. Complete all the required fields that are marked with a red asterisk (*).
   
   
4. When you are finished, select Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.
   

 

Adding / updating license details in CAQH

This takes most providers around 5 minutes to complete.

 

Adding a license:

Navigate to your CAQH account

1. Select Profile Data > Professional IDs.
2. Click the red Add button a bit below the Professional License Header.
   
3. Complete your license details in the pop-up window.
   
4. When you are done, select Continue and the pop-up window will close.
5. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and Continue when you are done editing your license details and any other information on the Professional IDs page.
   
   

 

Updating a license:

Navigate to your CAQH account

1. Select Profile Data > Professional IDs.
2. Next to the license that you would like to update, select Edit on the right hand side.
   
3. Update your license details in the pop-up window.
   
4. When you are done, select Continue and the pop-up window will close.
5. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page and click Save and Continue when you are done editing your license details and any other information on the Professional IDs page.

 

Adding Professional Liability Details in CAQH

This takes most providers around 5 minutes to complete.

Navigate to your CAQH account

1. Select Profile Data > Professional Liability Insurance.
2. Click the red Add button next to Please enter at least one insurance policy.
   • You will need to have a valid malpractice policy in order to be credentialed with Headway.
3. Complete all the required fields that are marked with a red asterisk (*).
   
   
4. When you are done, select Save and Continue at the bottom of the page.
   

 

Frequently asked questions

 

How do I find my CAQH ID?

If you do not know your CAQH ID, you can retrieve it at this link.

If you are still having trouble, please reach out to your Provider Growth Associate at Headway and they will assist you with identifying the ID.

 

How do I find my username?

If you do not know your username for CAQH, please use this link to retrieve your username using your CAQH ID.

 

How do I find my password?

If you do not know your password for CAQH, please use this link to retrieve your password using your CAQH username.

 

How do I change the email address associated with my CAQH account?

If you discover while resetting your password that your account is registered to an email address to which you do not have access, please call CAQH at 888-599-1771 in order to adjust the email address on your account.

 

I have duplicate CAQH accounts. How do I merge them?

If you have more than one CAQH account, you will need to merge the accounts in order to move forward with credentialing. You can do this by calling CAQH at 888-599-1771. This can take up to a few days.

 

I am new to CAQH and the Headway intake form is giving me an error when I try to link my new CAQH account. What's wrong?

If you have just re-attested your CAQH account for the first time, please navigate to the documents section of your CAQH account to ensure that you have properly uploaded all required documents in that section; this will typically include your malpractice policy and state authorization forms, but may include other documents. Once this is complete, re-attest your account again to make sure the documents will be reviewed.

Then, sit tight! CAQH takes about 2 business days to review the documents in your account. Once they approve the documents, you will be able to successfully link your CAQH account to your Headway profile. 

 

Why isn't my intake form refreshing even though I’ve made updates to my CAQH?

Ensure that you have saved any required changes in CAQH and that you have re-attested your account after making updates. The intake form should refresh properly as long has you have saved and re-attested your CAQH account.

 

What do I write in the “Practice Location” section?

If you only practice virtually and do not have practice location information, please reach out to your provider growth associate to request Headway’s practice location information. 

 

Common intake errors

License number exceptions

Hawaii

• Hawaii often only prints license numbers on the physical license, excluding any prefixes. The license number listed on the board website should be the complete number you need to enter, including any prefixes. Please visit your board website to view your full license number. 
• Example: 
  • Physical license number: 1234
  • License number as listed on the board website: LCSW-1234 

Illinois

• If your license number includes a period, exclude it when entering your license number.
• Example: 123.456789 should be entered as 123456789

Indiana 

• If you have two license numbers, enter the one ending in "####A". 
• Example:
  • License number one: 123456789####A
  • License number two: 123456789####B 

Kansas

• Your license may have the license type as prefix, separated from the number by a space. Exclude the space when entering your license number. 

  • Example: LCSW 1234 should be entered as LCSW1234

Minnesota

• If your license number has two numbers and two zeroes at the beginning, exclude them when entering your license number. 

  • Example: cc00123 should be entered as 123

Missouri

• If your license number contains leading zeroes, do not exclude them when entering your license number.

  • Example: 001234 (do not remove the beginning zeroes)

New York 

• Your New York license number should be 6 digits long, and exclude any prefixes or suffixes.
  • Example:
    • 123456-01 should be entered as 123456
    • PR061234 should be entered as 061234

Ohio 

• If you have an LPCC-SUPV license, you must add -SUPV as a suffix at the end of the license number. 

  • Example: license type is LPCC-SUPV, license number 123456; enter as 123456-SUPV

Tennessee 

• If your license number shows a letter prefix and some zeroes, enter only the non-zero numbers. 
  • Example: LSW0000001234 should be entered as 1234

 

Practice / other practice states missing

You may receive an error stating that you haven't listed a state as a practice state in your CAQH profile.

This means that you likely have not listed the state you're adding in your CAQH profile under either Primary Practice State or Other Practice State(s). 

To fix this error: 

1. Navigate to Personal Information in CAQH 
2. Add the state listed in the error message under Primary Practice State or Additional Practice State(s)
   
   
3. Once added, make sure to review & attest

Add [State] License Issue Date to CAQH

This error means that you need to specifically add in the license issue date to CAQH for your Headway state license.

Even though this field is optional in CAQH and you have already re-attested your account, our insurance partners uniquely require us to include your license issue date when we submit your information to them. This means that we are asking you to include this in CAQH even though CAQH does not require it. 

Add this in by navigating to Profile Data > Professional IDs and click Edit next to your Headway state license.

Fill in the license issue date in the popup window and click Continue.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Continue. Then, re-attest your profile.

 

Add Professional Liability Insurance to CAQH

If you are getting this error and you have already added your professional liability insurance to CAQH, this indicates that you have not met the minimum the occurrence and aggregate limits, or you may have mis-typed them in your account.

Please navigate to Profile Data > Professional Liability Insurance. Click “edit” next to your malpractice policy.

Scroll down to the fields “Amount of coverage per occurrence” and “Amount of coverage aggregate” and ensure these numbers match what is listed on your malpractice policy.

For example, the sample malpractice documents displayed in this article have limits of $1,000,000 per occurrence and $3,000,000 aggregate. Your policy likely looks similar to one of these, so review it and make sure that the numbers match between your CAQH information and your malpractice document.

 

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Continue. Then, re-attest your profile.

 

Add Education to CAQH

Our logic is searching for your masters’ (or higher) level of completed education in CAQH. If you have already entered this into CAQH, it is likely that you have mistakenly marked the Education Type in CAQH as “Undergraduate” instead of “Professional School.”

You can update this in CAQH by navigating to Profile Data > Education & Professional Training and clicking Edit to update the Education Type to “Professional School.”

Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save and Continue. Then, re-attest your profile.