Moving your practice

Moving Your Practice to Massachusetts: Credentialing Checklist

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

The Checklist, Step by Step

1. Get the Massachusetts license. Physicians apply to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine. Nurses and nurse practitioners apply to the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing. Every later step needs the license number, so start here. Massachusetts has enacted the Nurse Licensure Compact, but multistate licenses are not in effect there yet, so plan on a Massachusetts license from the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing.
2. Register with DEA for Massachusetts. 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 Massachusetts; if you will practice in both states, get a separate Massachusetts registration. Massachusetts also requires a Massachusetts Controlled Substances Registration (MCSR) from the Department of Public Health. An MCSR is required to prescribe, dispense, administer or possess a controlled substance in Massachusetts, and DEA will not issue a registration in a state like this until the state registration is in place. A separate MCSR is required at each place of practice.
3. Cover Massachusetts on your malpractice policy. Many policies are written for specific states. Ask your carrier to add Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts location to your NPI record. Your NPI does not change. Log in to NPPES and add the Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts practice location, the Massachusetts license, the new DEA registration, the Massachusetts Controlled Substances Registration (MCSR) and the malpractice certificate that covers Massachusetts, 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 Massachusetts is handled by National Government Services, jurisdiction JK. If your current enrollment is with a different contractor, file a new CMS-855I with National Government Services; the 855I covers only practice locations inside one contractor's jurisdiction. If National Government Services already has your enrollment, add the Massachusetts 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 MassHealth. MassHealth is run by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and enrollment is filed through the MassHealth Provider Online Service Center (POSC). Medicaid enrollment does not transfer between states, so a new state means a new enrollment. Most Massachusetts Medicaid members are in managed care plans, and each plan credentials you separately once the state enrollment is active. The plans and how to join each one: MassHealth managed care plans.
8. Get credentialed with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and the other commercial plans. Blue plans in Massachusetts: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Blue plans are separate companies licensed state by state, so a Blue contract in your old state does not cover Massachusetts; apply as a new provider. National plans such as Aetna, Cigna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana need the Massachusetts location added and credentialed before they pay claims there. Massachusetts law gives commercial plans 60 days to make a credentialing decision, counted from a clean and complete initial application (95% of applications must meet it), with a status notice by day 75 (211 CMR 52.09). How to join: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts.

What PECS Charges for a Move to Massachusetts

Example: one provider moving to Massachusetts with Medicare, MassHealth, 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 Massachusetts

Sources

• Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine
• Massachusetts Controlled Substances Registration (MCSR)
• 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.