Psychiatric practitioners who contract with Rula must maintain their credentials while part of the network, even if not actively treating patients.
Impact on prescribing
Your credentialing status directly impacts your ability to prescribe medications through DrFirst. DrFirst validates your information using your:
- Full name
- NPI
- DEA license
- State license
- Credentialing records
If any of these are expired, missing, or mismatched across systems, your prescribing access may be temporarily blocked. To avoid interruptions in patient care, please ensure all credentialing information remains current and consistent across systems.
License
We require an active license for providers to remain in the Rula network. Licenses must be maintained and renewed according to state licensing board requirements. Licenses should be renewed before expiration.
Professional liability insurance
We require 1099 contractor providers to have professional liability insurance. We require a minimum coverage of $1M occurrence / $3M aggregate, as our payer partners require.
Insurance needs to be renewed annually. You maintain your professional liability insurance in your CAQH profile. Log in to your CAQH profile at proview.caqh.org to update this information. Be sure to have your certificate of insurance, as you'll need to upload it to the documents section of your profile each time you renew your insurance.
While Rula cannot recommend a liability carrier we do see several used by our contracted providers. Such as the following listed:
- CPH and Associates
- HPSO
- Liberty Mutual
- Nexus Insurance Services
Research each one and select what fits your needs!
Please ensure we have your accurate email address on file so we can resolve any issues quickly and keep you seeing Rula patients. Failure to maintain proper credentialing may result in termination from the network.
DEA requirements
We require an active DEA certificate to prescribe medicine, with appropriate controlled substance prescribing capabilities for providers to remain in the Rula network. This includes checking with your state specific requirements to make sure you have the correct schedules allowed for Psychiatric Mental Health Care prescribing.
DEAs must be maintained and renewed according to DEA requirements, and should be renewed before expiration.
Board certifications
We require contracted providers to be board-certified and maintain board certification to remain in the Rula network. NPs must be board-certified PMNHP with American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
Credentialing at Rula
We ensure all providers are appropriately credentialed and linked to our contracted payers. Our credentialing process is NCQA accredited, which allows Rula to have “delegated credentialing” for the health plans we are contracted with across all states where we are active.
NCQA standards require us to maintain our own policies and procedures, and ensure we adhere to all payer delegation requirements as long as you are affiliated with our network. Once onboarded with Rula, our Credentialing team is required to conduct monthly reviews for any federal or state sanctions against your license and also review licensure boards for any disciplinary action/s or accusations.
You must:
- Notify our Credentialing team if you have disciplinary action, sanction, or pending malpractice claim placed on your license, or have been convicted of a felony or misdemeanor.
- Complete initial and annual HIPAA training to avoid being removed from the network—this is a contractual requirement with our payers.
Initial credentialing and recredentialing
Our Credentialing Committee meets monthly to review and approve all new providers that have issues flagged on initial credentialing, and review any complaints or disciplinary action against a provider. While you are part of the network, the standard approval cycle is for a 3-year participation.
Rula providers are recredentialed before the end of their “initial” credentialing cycle. You are notified before recredentialing so you can make sure all credentialing information in your CAQH profile is up-to-date.
How to handle expiring credentials
We send automated email reminders regarding your expiring documents you maintain with us and in your CAQH profile. Your license, malpractice insurance, and DEA certificate to prescribe medicine are important documents that must be kept current at all times.
If any required credentialing documents expire, such as your DEA license, state license, board certification, or malpractice insurance, follow the steps below:
- Monitor your email for outreach from Rula's Credentialing team, which proactively notifies providers about upcoming expirations.
- Submit updated documentation as soon as possible to credentialingteam@rula.com.
- Once the updated documents are received and verified, your prescribing access will be reinstated.
- Please remember that any mismatches in credential data can interrupt prescribing.
Prescribing cannot resume until credentialing requirements are back in compliance.
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