Commercial payers
- Aetna: 60–120 days. Uses CAQH.
- BCBS (varies by plan / state): 60–150 days. Some Blues plans (Anthem, Highmark, HCSC) run separate portals per state.
- Cigna / Evernorth: 60–120 days.
- UnitedHealthcare / Optum: 60–120 days for medical; Optum Behavioral 60–120 days for ABA / behavioral health.
- Humana: 60–120 days.
- Tricare (Humana Military, TriWest): 60–120 days.
Medicare
45–90 days for a clean PECOS application via the MAC contractor for your state (Novitas, Palmetto, NGS, WPS, First Coast, Noridian). Missing 855R or CMS-588 pushes it out. See the Medicare enrollment guide.
Medicaid (state FFS)
- Most states: 60–120 days.
- California (Medi-Cal / PAVE), Texas (TMHP), New York (eMedNY): often 90–180 days.
- Retro-effective: varies dramatically — some states allow 90–365 days of retro billing; others allow zero.
See Medicaid enrollment by state.
Managed Medicaid MCOs
- Anthem, Molina, Centene / Ambetter, WellCare, CareSource: 30–90 days after the state Medicaid ID is issued.
- Roster loads often run monthly — miss the cutoff and you wait another month.
Behavioral / ABA networks
- Optum Behavioral, Magellan, Carelon, Beacon, Evernorth Behavioral: 60–120 days.
How to shorten every payer
- File in parallel — every commercial payer + state Medicaid the same week.
- Clean CAQH at intake (CAQH guide).
- Weekly follow-up with named payer reps.
- Capture every retro-effective date the payer allows.
Want this run for you? See provider credentialing services and payer enrollment services.