EIN, SSN, CAQH, NPI, and ABCDEFG?!

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Counseling Private Practice tips

Counseling Private Practice tips

I recently received an email from someone starting a private practice in the coming months. They were wondering about all the acronyms in the counseling world. This list can be frustrating! These are just a few of the most common. Every agency and area has their own as well. But here are some essentials to understand.

EIN

An Employer Identification Number (EIN) is also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number, and is used to identify a business entity. http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Employer-ID-Numbers-(EINs)-

NPI

National Provider Identifier The Administrative Simplification provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) mandated the adoption of a standard unique identifier for health care providers. The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) collects identifying information on health care providers and assigns each a unique National Provider Identifier (NPI).https://nppes.cms.hhs.gov/NPPES/StaticForward.do?forward=static.npistart

Tax ID

This is a general term for any ID the IRS usesto ID someone or a business. A SSN or EIN are both tax IDs. http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/International-Taxpayers/Taxpayer-Identification-Numbers-(TIN )

 

CAQH

CAQH, a nonprofit alliance of health plans and trade associations, allows for industry collaboration and simplifies healthcare administration http://www.caqh.org

 

LLC

Limited Liability Company. Regarding using your SSN vs. becoming a LLC for CAQH or insurances or even just general practice, that would be acceptable, but not recommended. The reason is that you are probably a 1099 at Silver Lake Psychotherapy Associates, since you list yourself on LinkedIn as an Independent Contractor. So you could file as a LLC (Limited Liability Co.) http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Limited-Liability-Company-(LLC ), which in many ways offers more protection than a DBA or 1099 since clients cannot sue you for personal assets, only the “company” assets, basically whatever you keep in the bank account.

If you are planning on starting a practice, I think that my 52-week Private Practice Builder would be a great resource for you! You get an email every week with steps to go from no private practice to a thriving one by the end of 52 weeks. It keeps you on track and saves a ton of time since you don’t have to go find out all these types of things. It does cost $10/m but I personally would have loved to have the info when I started!

www.PracticeofthePractice.com/52weeks

 

counseling private practice advice

Joseph R. Sanok is the owner of Mental Wellness Counseling in Traverse City, MI (www.mentalwellnesscounseling.com). Also, he consults with counselors through in-person and virtual to help them to be more awesome in their counseling private practice.

 

Counseling Private Practice tips Photos from Creative Commons, thank you to limbte!