UnitedHealthcare, Cigna and Centene sign on to shared credentialing program

Three of the country's largest health insurers have agreed to route provider credentialing through a single outside platform, a setup its developer says could erase three-quarters of a $2 billion annual administrative cost.

CertifyOS announced its National Shared Credentialing Program on Sept. 23, naming UnitedHealthcare, Cigna Healthcare and Centene as its first participating health plans, according to the company's press release. CertifyOS plans to launch the service this fall.

Under the model, participating plans hand their recredentialing rosters to CertifyOS, which runs primary source verification to National Committee for Quality Assurance and Medicaid standards in every state where a clinician is licensed. Physicians and other clinicians enter their CAQH ID and required information once through the CertifyOS portal instead of answering each plan separately.

CertifyOS CEO Anshul Rathi told Fierce Healthcare that 1.4 million to 2 million providers will complete credentialing through the platform next year. Mike Kane, senior vice president of provider data operations at UnitedHealthcare, said in the announcement that the model would "allow providers to spend more time focused on patient care."

The company's case rests on its own math. CertifyOS says the U.S. spends more than $2 billion a year verifying provider credentials and that as much as 75 percent of that is avoidable. It puts plans' cost at $200 to $500 per provider per recredentialing cycle and says providers file an average of 17 applications a year, worth roughly $700 in time and effort. The release does not say where those figures come from.

Why the timeline matters

For practices, credentialing is a revenue problem before it is a paperwork problem. A provider who is not credentialed with a plan cannot bill it, and new-patient schedules for a new hire often wait on those approvals.

A Nov. 4, 2025, MGMA Stat poll found 65 percent of medical groups had credentialing and reappointment files on time, while 32 percent reported a backlog, a credentials verification organization delay or a slip into the next quarter. Respondents traced most backlogs to payer enrollment delays and slow reference and board verifications.

Enter once, again

The "enter it once" promise is not new. CAQH ProView, the provider data portal health plans already use for credentialing information, has long pitched itself as a way for providers to submit their data only once. Its own provider guide still tells users to check with each individual organization for their credentialing status.

CertifyOS builds on that CAQH profile and goes a step further by performing the verification once on the plans' behalf. But its reach stops at the plans that sign on. Rathi acknowledged to Fierce Healthcare that the model gets easier for providers and plans as more providers are on it. For now, every payer outside the program keeps its own process.

Several questions remain open. The announcement frames the program around recredentialing rosters, and it is less clear how initial credentialing for a new hire will move through it. It also does not address payer enrollment or contract effective dates, the step MGMA respondents most often blamed for delays.

What practices can do now

There is no practice-side sign-up. Plans roster providers with CertifyOS, and CertifyOS reaches out. That puts the practical steps in the practice's own files:

• Keep every clinician's CAQH profile current. CAQH asks providers to reattest every 120 days, or 180 days in Illinois.
• Confirm before sharing. If CertifyOS contacts your providers, verify the request with your UnitedHealthcare, Cigna or Centene provider representative before sending credentials.
• Set a baseline. Log how long recredentialing takes with these three plans today so you can tell whether the new process actually shortens it.

CertifyOS says other health plans interested in joining can contact the company directly. Whether any more sign on before launch will say a lot about how much this changes for practices.