Changed Your Practice Address in CAQH? Update Payers Too
By George Ruan • October 7, 2026
Last reviewed: October 7, 2026.
Updating your address in CAQH is necessary but not sufficient. CAQH makes the new location available to plans that pull your profile; it does not change each payer’s own provider record. Most payers want a separate change request through their own channel, often with a signed W-9 showing the new address, and NPPES and Medicare have their own deadlines.
Sections
First, decide which address changed
A move can touch several different addresses, and they do not all have to be the same:
Service location: where care happens and which clinicians work there
Mailing or correspondence: where notices and letters go
Billing or pay-to: where payments and remittance information are tied
Write down the old and new values and the effective date for each. When we file these, we tell the payer which address changes and which ones stay, rather than asking for “update everything.” If the tax ID changed too, that is a bigger job; see the payer EIN-change guide.
How the routes differ by payer
These are the routes we have actually used. Confirm each payer’s current process, since they change:
Aetna: a written request with a signed W-9, sent to its demographic-update team; we plan on about 30 business days. Its Provider Data Management guide covers directory edits, which are not the same as billing-record changes.
Evernorth (Cigna behavioral): per its directory change instructions, individual service-address edits go through the provider portal, while TIN and affiliation changes go through Provider Services. Confirm the billing address for the TIN on the same call.
Priority Health: an online change request in its provider portal, with a W-9. The practice may need to set up portal access first.
Health plans with change forms: some send you to a provider add/change form and expect you to keep its confirmation number for follow-up.
Medicare: a change of information in PECOS covering the practice location, special payments address, and correspondence address, with a W-9 showing the new address and the required signatures.
NPPES and Medicare deadlines
CMS says covered providers must report an address change to NPPES within 30 days of its effective date, and the NPI itself does not change. See the CMS NPI address-change FAQ. For Medicare-enrolled practitioners and groups, CMS also requires practice-location changes to be reported within 30 days through the enrollment change process; a CAQH or NPPES edit does not count as that submission. See CMS Medicare enrollment guidance.
Where moves go sideways
A verification call is not a change request. Plans and their data vendors call to verify directory details. In one case a plan confirmed that such a call was only a data check and that nothing had been filed; the formal change still needed its add/change form.
A mailbox or virtual-office suite. Medicare did not accept a mail-receiving-service suite as a practice location. A telehealth-only clinician working from home can use PECOS’s home-office option, which keeps the street address off Care Compare. Some Medicaid programs, by contrast, publish the service address you file.
CAQH’s virtual-only box. Marking a CAQH location virtual only removes its physical address from what plans receive. That is right only if you never see clients there in person.
CAQH published it, so the payer must have it. A current, attested CAQH profile shows CAQH sent the change, not that a given payer loaded it. Check the payer’s own record.
Close it out with evidence
For each payer, keep the submission date, reference or confirmation number, what was requested, and the payer’s confirmation of the new location and its effective date. Then check the payer’s directory, update your EHR and clearinghouse to match, and watch the first claims after the move. Payment setup such as EFT is usually separate from the address change. Keep the old location available for earlier dates of service rather than backdating the new one.
DataSpring’s clinician Q&A explains how CAQH data is shared with authorized organizations. For the quarterly location reminders, see the CAQH Directory Management email.
Related Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
Does updating CAQH update all my insurance companies?
No. It makes the new address available to plans that pull your profile, but most payers still need their own change request before their records, directories, and claims reflect it.
Do I need a new NPI because the office moved?
No. Update the address on your existing NPI record in NPPES within 30 days. A new entity or ownership change is a different question.
Can I list a mailbox address as my practice location?
Not for Medicare, in our experience. If you only see clients by telehealth from home, ask about the home-office option instead of using a mail-service suite.
Sources
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