Aetna

Where you file

How you apply

Aetna's own participation request, processed by 3Won / ProVault

The path

aetna.com › Health Care Professionals › Join the Aetna Network › choose the BEHAVIORAL HEALTH application (not Medical) › the request is processed through 3Won / ProVault, where contracting and credentialing begin. CAQH registration kit within 10 business days of the request.

What access you need

A CAQH ProView profile with Aetna listed as an AUTHORIZED HEALTH PLAN. Aetna's credentialing data is pulled from ProView through a CVO accredited by URAC to NCQA standards.

Who verifies

Aetna uses CAQH ProView with a CVO accredited by URAC to NCQA standards

Worth knowing

Aetna runs FOUR separate join applications — Medical, Dental, Behavioral health, Pharmacy. A behavioural provider who files on the medical application is filing the wrong file. AFTER credentialing and contracting, Availity becomes the operational channel for claims, eligibility and authorizations.

CAQH

Required

Register, complete the profile, upload documents, attest, then authorise Aetna on the Authorization tab. The authorisation is the step that stalls files — without it Aetna cannot read the profile.

Authorise this payer

Aetna

Lines of business

Each line is its own application, with its own checklist, its own effective date and its own contract. Filing one does not file the others. What follows is what this payer asks for, line by line.

What to watch for

The things that quietly stop a file, whichever line of business you are filing.

• Must be trueThe line is NOT delegated to a vendor — Aetna is the credentialing entity for itAetna's own behavioural directory: providers marked with the vendor symbol 'may not be directly contracted with Aetna, and, consequently, not credentialed by Aetna.' On a delegated line the vendor is the entity you apply to, on the vendor's timeline. The test is the network name and behavioural health number on the member's ID card — Aetna's own delegated-vendor list page returned 404 on 2026-11-04, so we cannot hand a provider that link.
• Must be trueFiled on the BEHAVIORAL HEALTH application, not the Medical applicationAetna runs four separate join applications — Medical, Dental, Behavioral health, Pharmacy. A behavioural provider on the medical application is filing the wrong file, and the request is processed by 3Won / ProVault regardless.
• Must be trueAetna's panel is open in your service area and a Network Manager has contacted you to begin formal credentialingAetna reviews each request against whether it intends to add a provider in that geographic area. If the panel is closed the request is denied by letter or email — a BUSINESS DECISION, not a credentialing failure. Decision on the request: within 60 days.
• Must be trueAetna is listed as an AUTHORIZED HEALTH PLAN in the CAQH Authorization tabAetna pulls its credentialing data from CAQH ProView. Without the authorisation the file stalls on arrival — this is not a missing document, it is a file nobody reads.
• Must be trueIf billing under supervision: the supervisor is independently licensed, credentialed and contracted with Aetna, and employed by the same group or facilityAetna permits supervisory billing for licence-eligible behavioural clinicians. Virtual supervision is allowed. The supervisor's Aetna status is part of the clinician's file, not a separate piece of admin.
• Must be trueCredentialing AND contracting both completeAetna is explicit that these are two separate processes and that both have to finish before the provider can see Aetna members. The written notice after credentialing is not an effective date.

What the payer publishes about time

Completeness review

The file is complete when the participation request is filed on the behavioural application and Aetna is authorised in CAQH. Aetna pulls the rest from ProView, so a stale or unattested profile fails every Aetna file at once.

Decision

Aetna publishes a decision on the participation request within 60 days. The panel gate comes before credentialing: if the panel is open a Network Manager contacts you to start formal credentialing, and if it is closed you get a denial letter or email.

Committee

notVerified — no committee cadence is published for Aetna behavioural

Contract

30–60 days, countersigned through Adobe Sign (published).

What the numbers mean

The stage-by-stage figures — participation request 1–30 days, contracting 30–60, credentialing 60–90, countersignature and effective date 90–120 — come from the Spring 2025 Provider Education Bulletin. The current edition is Fall 2026 and the figures have NOT been re-verified. Where the later stages start their clock is not published either.

Deadlines that start a clock

• Aetna's published window for the CAQH registration kit (10 business days from the request)10 business days

  counted from the date we submitted

• Decision on the participation request60 calendar days

  counted from the date we submitted

• Credentialing stage should be complete90 calendar days

  counted from the date we submitted

• Written effective date120 calendar days

  counted from the date we submitted

Recredentialing

Cycle

notPublished

Worth knowing

No GA or TX behavioural recredentialing cycle is published in Aetna's own material that we could verify on 2026-11-04, so none is quoted. CAQH attestation (120 days) and the profile currency are the only recurring clocks we can state. Re-check on the next Aetna bulletin.

The effective date

Approval is not the date. These are the markers that make a date real.

How it is established

Aetna's systems reflect the participation effective date, and the directory updates only after countersignature. The published sequence ends at countersignature and effective date between 90 and 120 days.

What proves it

The written credentialing notice, the countersigned participating provider agreement, and a provider record and directory listing.

Contract date

This is not the same as the contract effective date. Track both.

Worth knowing

Do not record an effective date from the credentialing approval or from the participation request sitting in review. Credentialing and contracting are separate, both must complete, and the approval is not the date. We make NO backdate claim for Aetna: no published window was found.

What we checked, and what we did not

Verified 2026-11-04 against Aetna's own pages: the four application types and the behavioural application, the 3Won / ProVault participation path, the CAQH kit timing (10 business days) and the authorisation rule, the open/closed panel gate, the 60-day decision on the request, credentialing-is-not-contracting, Availity as the operational channel, the delegated-vendor marker language, the status and precertification phone lines, and the supervisory-billing rule. NOT verified: the committee cadence, the GA/TX behavioural recredentialing cycle, any backdating window, the delegated-vendor list (URL 404, no replacement verified), and the stage-by-stage timeline against the Fall 2026 bulletin.

The payer's own pages