Catholic Health IPA Credentialing Policy Update

Catholic Health IPA Ends Base Credentialing — Policy Now in Full Effect

Catholic Health IPA's policy change eliminating base credentialing for providers has been in effect since January 1, 2026. As of that date, the IPA can no longer base credential providers. Fee schedules can only be updated once a provider has been fully credentialed with the payer and linked to the rendering Tax Identification Number (TIN).

Under the previous model, base credentialing allowed providers to participate through the IPA before completing full credentialing directly with the payer. According to Catholic Health IPA, the policy change is intended to protect practices and providers from losing payer participation if a practice later terminates its relationship with the IPA.

Under the new policy, if a practice terminates from the IPA, providers who were only base credentialed by the IPA — and had not completed full credentialing with the payer — would become out-of-network (OON) and lose their participation. Those providers would then have to re-base credential, and would be unable to render services during that process.

What this means for practices, eight months in:

• Fee schedule updates remain contingent on full payer credentialing and rendering-TIN linkage, rather than IPA affiliation alone. 
• Practices onboarding new providers should plan for the additional credentialing time required before fee schedules can be updated.
• Providers who were base credentialed before January 1, 2026 should confirm whether their payer credentialing has since been completed, particularly if the practice may terminate from the IPA.
• Credentialing teams should maintain visibility into both payer credentialing status and TIN linkage for providers participating through Catholic Health IPA. 

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