Every credentialing service knows these numbers. Almost none publish them, because the honest answer — two to four months after submission — is also the argument for submitting fast. Here they are anyway.
| Payer | Typical approval time | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare (PECOS) | 45–65 days | Cleanest of the majors when the application is right the first time. Allows retroactive billing to the filing date — hold your claims. |
| Medicaid | 30–90 days | Varies enormously by state. Managed-care Medicaid plans add their own layer after the state enrollment. |
| VA Community Care | 60–90 days | Growing referral source for chiropractic; enrollment runs through regional networks. |
| Payer | Typical approval time | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Blue Cross Blue Shield | 60–90 days | State-by-state Blues vary; a clean CAQH profile is most of the battle. |
| Aetna | 60–90 days | Pulls heavily from CAQH — stale attestation stalls everything. |
| UnitedHealthcare | 60–120 days | Often the slowest major. Panel-closure responses are also most common here. |
| Cigna | 60–90 days | Middle of the pack; responsive to follow-up. |
| Humana | 60–90 days | Medicare Advantage plans ride on your Medicare enrollment being clean. |
| Panel | Typical approval time | What drives it |
|---|---|---|
| Workers comp boards | 30–90+ days | Fifty different state systems — some online portals, some still paper by mail. A major chiropractic revenue line worth the wait. |
| Personal injury / auto | Days–weeks | Often the fastest panels to join, and immediately billable in PI-heavy states like Florida. |
Ranges assume a complete, accurate application. Errors and stale CAQH data are the #1 cause of blowing past these ranges — a rejected application restarts the clock. All timelines start at SUBMISSION, not signup: a service that takes three weeks to submit adds three weeks to every number above.
You can't make UnitedHealthcare faster. You can control when the clock starts. ChiroEnroll submits every application within 48 hours of your completed intake — so the only wait left is the payer's. Wondering about your CAQH side of the equation? Check your re-attestation deadline free.
Flat pricing on the page, applications out in 48 hours or you don't pay, and a live dashboard tracking every payer above. New practices and established ones.