Is CAQH still called CAQH?

The organization rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH, on June 8, 2026, announced at the AHIP conference. The Provider Data Portal, previously called CAQH ProView, kept its login, its profile data, its documents, and its attestation history. Existing accounts carried over with no re-enrollment required. It is a name and ownership change, not a platform migration.

How often does a dentist have to re-attest their CAQH (now DataSpring) profile?

Every 120 days from the last attestation date, or 180 days for Illinois providers. The clock does not pause or reset itself; it resets only when the provider logs in, confirms every field is current, and electronically signs. The portal sends reminder emails at 30, 14, and 3 days before the deadline, but the deadline itself does not move.

What happens if a dentist misses the 120-day attestation window?

The profile status changes from Active to Expired. Once expired, payers can no longer pull current data from it, which stalls any credentialing or re-credentialing application in progress. The practice keeps treating patients and submitting claims during this gap; the interruption shows up later, when a payer that needed a clean profile pull to finish enrollment cannot get one.

Is the 120-day attestation cycle the same as NCQA recredentialing?

No, and confusing the two is the actual risk. NCQA requires full recredentialing every 36 months from the last approval date, a fixed deadline with no grace period outside specific exceptions like active duty military service or medical leave. Attestation is the provider confirming their existing profile is current every 120 days; recredentialing is the payer re-verifying the underlying credentials on the 36-month cycle. A current attestation does not substitute for a completed recredentialing cycle.

What should a multi-provider practice actually track?

Two separate calendars, per provider, not one. The 120-day attestation date for the Provider Data Portal profile, and the 36-month recredentialing date for each payer contract that provider holds. A practice with five providers credentialed across six payers is tracking up to thirty independent recredentialing dates behind one shared attestation clock, and a missed one drops that provider from that network as if they were never enrolled.

CAQH Is Now DataSpring, Owned by the Payers Who Pay Your Claims. The 120-Day Attestation Clock Did Not Change.

Q: Who owns DataSpring?

In January 2026, CAQH converted from a nonprofit collaborative to a for-profit company owned by 12 shareholder companies affiliated with health plans, reported to include UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Cigna, Elevance Health, Humana, Centene, and several Blues plans. A UnitedHealth Group executive now chairs the board. The portal remains free for providers to use; that has not changed.

A dental practice’s claims do not stop because a payer changed its name. They stop because a profile the payer depends on to verify who is credentialed quietly changed status from Active to Expired, and nobody in the office was watching the date. That mechanism did not change this year. The company running it did.

What actually changed when CAQH became DataSpring?

The rebrand and the ownership shift

CAQH converted from a nonprofit collaborative to a for-profit company in January 2026, owned by 12 shareholder companies affiliated with health plans, reported to include UnitedHealth Group, Aetna, Cigna, Elevance Health, Humana, and Centene, among Blues plans. On June 8, 2026, at the AHIP conference, the organization rebranded as DataSpring, powered by CAQH. The Provider Data Portal, formerly ProView, kept every existing login, profile, document, and attestation history. The American Dental Association confirmed the ADA Credentialing Service remains free with no interruption in service.

Source: PR Newswire, "Leading Health Plans Become CAQH Owners to Shape the Future of Healthcare Data" (2026); ADA News, "What to know about CAQH change to DataSpring" (June 2026)

Nothing about the mechanics broke. What changed is who sits on the other side of the platform every dentist’s credentialing runs through: the same payers who adjudicate the claims are now the named owners of the utility that decides whether a provider’s data profile is current enough for a payer to trust.

What does the attestation cycle actually require?

The 120-day clock

Providers are required to attest to their data profiles every 120 days, 180 days for Illinois providers, to comply with credentialing requirements. Attestation is a specific action: log in, confirm every field is still accurate, and electronically sign. If a provider does not attest within the window, the Provider Data Portal status changes to Expired. The clock resets only on the date of the actual attestation, not on the date of the reminder email.

Source: DataSpring (formerly CAQH), Directory Management FAQ

Nothing here is new. Dental practices have lived under this cycle for years. What is easy to lose, especially with a name change layered on top, is that the cycle is still running, on the same 120-day interval, inside a company that now answers to the payers as shareholders rather than to a collaborative of the industry as a whole.

Why does a missed attestation matter more than it looks like it should?

An Expired status does not deny a claim by itself. It stalls whatever depends on that profile being current: a new payer enrollment, a re-credentialing cycle already underway, a location or ownership update a payer needs verified before it will pay at the new address. A practice can keep treating patients and submitting claims for weeks after a profile expires and see nothing wrong, right up until a payer that needed a clean data pull to finish a pending action cannot get one, and the pending action stalls with it.

How is this different from NCQA recredentialing, and why does the difference matter?

Two clocks, not one

NCQA requires full recredentialing every 36 months from a provider's last approval date, a fixed deadline the accrediting body treats as hard: no grace period outside documented exceptions such as active duty military assignment or medical leave, and a file not recredentialed within the window gets scored down. The recredentialing process itself should start 90 to 120 days ahead of that deadline. Attestation and recredentialing are not the same event: attestation confirms the data on file is still accurate every 120 days; recredentialing is the payer independently re-verifying the underlying license, malpractice history, and sanctions record every 36 months.

Source: NCQA Credentialing Standards; NCQA FAQ on recredentialing timelines

A dental office that treats “I attested last month” as proof it is safe on every front is answering the wrong question. A current attestation keeps the profile Active. It does not advance, extend, or substitute for a 36-month recredentialing deadline that is tracked separately, by each payer, off the same underlying data.

What should a practice actually check about this today?

Pull the roster of every credentialed provider in the practice and, for each one, find two dates: the last Provider Data Portal attestation, and the next recredentialing deadline for each payer contract that provider holds. A five-provider practice credentialed across six payers is not tracking one shared clock. It is tracking up to thirty independent recredentialing dates sitting behind a single, more frequent attestation cycle that has to stay current just to keep the underlying data readable when any one of those thirty deadlines comes due. The rebrand did not add a new date to track. It is a reason to confirm the dates already being tracked are actually the right ones, and that the reminder emails a front desk deletes on sight are still landing at 30, 14, and 3 days before a deadline that has not moved.

Where this comes from

The ownership and rebrand facts in this piece come from PR Newswire’s 2026 release on CAQH’s shareholder transition, ADA News’ June 2026 coverage of the DataSpring change, and FierceHealthcare’s AHIP 2026 reporting. The 120-day attestation requirement and Illinois exception are stated directly in DataSpring’s (formerly CAQH’s) Directory Management FAQ. The 36-month recredentialing standard is NCQA’s own published credentialing timeline. No practice-specific data is used in this piece. If you want to know where your own practice’s credentialing and attestation dates actually stand against what each payer requires, ClaimRail runs a free audit against your own data. No fee, no pitch.