Moving your practice

Moving Your Practice to California: Credentialing Checklist

A move to California touches every enrollment you have. The license, NPI record, Medicare enrollment, Medi-Cal, each commercial plan, your CAQH (DataSpring) profile, your DEA registration and your malpractice policy all have to show California before claims there pay. Here is the order that works, with the California specifics.

The Checklist, Step by Step

1. Get the California license. Physicians apply to the Medical Board of California (MDs) and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California (DOs). Nurses and nurse practitioners apply to the California Board of Registered Nursing. Every later step needs the license number, so start here.
2. Register with DEA for California. DEA registrations are state-specific: you need a registration in each state where you handle controlled substances, and the state license comes first. If you are leaving your old state, change the address on your current registration to California; if you will practice in both states, get a separate California registration.
3. Cover California on your malpractice policy. Many policies are written for specific states. Ask your carrier to add California or write a new policy before your first patient there, and settle tail or prior-acts coverage if you are leaving your current carrier.
4. Add the California location to your NPI record. Your NPI does not change. Log in to NPPES and add the California practice location within 30 days of the change. If you still practice in your old state, keep that location too; an NPI record can list more than one practice location. Payers check applications against this record, so update it before you apply.
5. Update and re-attest your CAQH (DataSpring) profile. Add the California practice location, the California license, the new DEA registration and the malpractice certificate that covers California, then re-attest. Every commercial plan reads this profile, so do it before any commercial application goes out.
6. Update Medicare in PECOS. Medicare in California is handled by Noridian Healthcare Solutions, jurisdiction JE. If your current enrollment is with a different contractor, file a new CMS-855I with Noridian Healthcare Solutions; the 855I covers only practice locations inside one contractor's jurisdiction. If Noridian Healthcare Solutions already has your enrollment, add the California location to it. If you will bill through a group, file the reassignment to that group at the same time. The effective date is the later of the filing date or the date you began seeing patients at the new location (42 CFR 424.520(d)), and you can bill up to 30 days before it when circumstances kept you from enrolling earlier (42 CFR 424.521(a)). File as soon as you have the license and the address.
7. Enroll in Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal is run by the California Department of Health Care Services, and enrollment is filed through PAVE, the Medi-Cal Provider Application and Validation for Enrollment portal. Medicaid enrollment does not transfer between states, so a new state means a new enrollment. Most California Medicaid members are in managed care plans, and each plan credentials you separately once the state enrollment is active. Step by step: Medi-Cal Provider Enrollment Through PAVE: Step by Step. The plans and how to join each one: Medi-Cal managed care plans.
8. Get credentialed with Blue Shield of California and the other commercial plans. Blue plans in California: Blue Shield of California and Anthem Blue Cross. Blue plans are separate companies licensed state by state, so a Blue contract in your old state does not cover California; apply as a new provider. National plans such as Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana need the California location added and credentialed before they pay claims there. California law gives commercial plans 90 days to make a credentialing decision, counted from a completed application including all third-party verifications, which plans must meet by January 1, 2027 under AB 1041 (2025); mental health and substance use providers already had 60 days (Cal. Health & Safety Code § 1374.198; Cal. Ins. Code § 10144.565). How to join: Blue Shield of California; Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

While you wait in California: If the plan misses the deadline, the provider is provisionally approved for 120 days, but only if the plan credentialed them within the past five years and there is no licensing discipline, adverse action or malpractice payment report.

What PECS Charges for a Move to California

Example: one provider moving to California with Medicare, Medi-Cal, the CAQH update, the NPI update and 3 commercial plans is $1,950. We follow up with every payer until each application is approved, and you can check status any time with your reference number.

Questions About Moving to California

Sources

• Medical Board of California (MDs) and the Osteopathic Medical Board of California (DOs)
• CMS-855I Medicare enrollment application (practice locations in another MAC jurisdiction need a separate 855I)
• 42 CFR 424.520(d): effective date of billing privileges
• 42 CFR 424.521(a): billing up to 30 days before the effective date
• 45 CFR 162.410(a)(4): report NPI data changes within 30 days
• DEA Diversion Control: registration FAQ (separate registration in each state)
• Interstate Medical Licensure Compact member list (CSG)
• Nurse Licensure Compact (NCSBN)
• PSYPACT map
• Counseling Compact map

By the PECS credentialing team, updated October 20, 2026. Compact memberships and board names checked in October 2026; confirm with the board before you apply.