MD| Maryland Insurance Administration Bulletin 26-20 notifies all health insurers, nonprofit health service plans, HMOs, dental plan organizations, and entities that arrange provider panels on behalf of carriers that the Commissioner is provisionally designating DataSpring — formerly the Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH) — as both the uniform online credentialing application and the multi-carrier common online provider directory information system under §§ 15-112.1 and 15-112.3 of the Insurance Article, following CAQH’s 2025 corporate restructuring away from nonprofit alliance status and the revisions made by Chapter 706 of the Laws of 2026.
- Provisional credentialing designation — DataSpring’s provider credentialing application satisfies all statutory criteria except the required stakeholder workgroup, so the designation is provisional; carriers may use it now to comply with uniform credentialing form requirements, and the designation becomes final once a compliant workgroup (representing health/dental carriers, MCOs, community health centers including FQHCs, behavioral health providers, private clinician practices, and credentialing intermediaries) is established.
- Provider directory system designation — DataSpring is designated as the system providers may use to submit new and updated provider directory information to carriers, and beginning September 1, 2026, carriers must accept new and updated network directory information submitted either through DataSpring or directly to the carrier.
- Ongoing reporting obligations — The vendor must report annually to the Commissioner by September 1 on workgroup findings and resulting improvements, plus each carrier’s average number of days between receiving a completed credentialing application and issuing written acceptance or rejection notice.