CAQH is now DataSpring. As of June 8, 2026, the credentialing portal many providers have used for years operates under the name “DataSpring, powered by CAQH.” Logins, profiles, and attestation schedules carried over without interruption, so the practical experience of using it stays the same.
The rename followed a change in ownership earlier in the year, and that’s where the details matter for practices. This post covers what changed, what it means for behavioral health specifically, and a few steps worth taking this month.
What Actually Changed With CAQH DataSpring
The June 8 rebrand is the visible part of a quieter shift five months earlier. The portal is still free to clinicians, your data and login carried over.
Here’s the part worth sitting with. The system of record that decides whether you’re credentialed, whether you appear in a payer’s directory, and whether your claims clear is now owned by the companies on the other side of every reimbursement you negotiate. That’s not a conspiracy. It’s the new org chart.
Why This Hits Behavioral Health Harder Than Most
A dental association can tell members to expect new letterhead and little else. Behavioral health sits in a different spot, for a few specific reasons.
Start with ghost networks. Behavioral health has some of the worst documented provider-directory accuracy problems in healthcare, where plans list clinicians who aren’t actually available or in-network. The New York Attorney General found that the overwhelming majority of mental health providers listed in plan directories were unreachable, not accepting new patients, or out of network.1 That directory data now runs through a payer-owned system.
Then there’s parity. Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act enforcement, and the state-level reforms built on it, lean on the accuracy of those same directories and network-adequacy records.2 Regulators are increasingly being asked to measure payer compliance using a system the payers now own. You can hold that as a structural tension without assuming anyone’s acting in bad faith.
One more piece: the same companies are already building and funding behavioral health delivery, from payer-owned care groups to platforms like Headway and Alma. The entity holding your practice data also competes for your patients. None of this requires a villain. The incentives changed, and you can run your practice accordingly.
The 120-Day Re-attestation Deadline You Control
Set the ownership debate aside for a moment, because the most practical risk has nothing to do with it. DataSpring, like CAQH before it, requires re-attestation every 120 days, or every 180 days for Illinois providers.3
Miss that window and your status flips to “not attested.” From there the effects stop being cosmetic. You can drop out of provider directories, hit payer enrollment disruptions, and run into claims friction until someone fixes it.
That clock has always ticked. What changes in a payer-owned environment is the cost of treating it casually. A solo counselor or a small group practice rarely has dedicated credentialing staff watching the calendar, so a missed re-attestation usually lands on the busiest person in the building. This is the part of provider credentialing you fully control, so control it.
What To Do This Month
You don’t need to panic. You do need a short routine. Here’s the behavioral health credentialing checklist worth running before your next attestation date.
- Log in and re-attest. Confirm your profile is current: specialties, practice locations, and payer participation all accurate.
- Set your own reminder. Put the 120-day re-attestation date on a recurring calendar alert, two weeks early. Don’t rely on the portal’s emails to save you.
- Keep independent copies. Save everything you upload: licenses, malpractice coverage, board certifications, your CV. When the other side owns the system of record, your own files are the backstop.
- Audit your authorizations. Review which payers you’ve allowed to access your data, and remove any you no longer work with.
- Document disruptions. Log any enrollment delays, directory errors, or claims problems with dates. Patterns are what state associations and regulators can act on later.
- Watch for phishing. Rebrands are a gift to scammers. Treat any “update your DataSpring account” email with suspicion and go to the portal directly instead of clicking through.
Own Your Own House
When the upstream systems your practice depends on belong to the payers you negotiate with, clean records and clear visibility on your side stop being nice-to-haves. They’re the thing that protects you when someone else controls the gate.
That’s the case for running on tools built for behavioral health and accountable to you, not to a payer. PIMSY is built specifically for behavioral health practices, with credentialing tracking and authorization management included, so your records and deadlines stay under your control instead of buried in someone else’s portal. Want to see how that works for your practice? Book a demo and we’ll walk you through it.
Sources
2 Addressing Ghost Networks in Mental Health Care (Harvard Petrie-Flom Center)
3 CAQH Provider Data Portal User Guide (re-attestation every 120 days; 180 for Illinois)
