PTAN is an acronym for Provider Transaction Access Number, but really it’s a unique identifier you get when you become credentialed with Medicare Part B as a mental health therapist.

Your Medicare contract will have your PTAN written within the first few pages.  You need to write it down, take a photo of it with your phone, and save it a few other ways so you have it accessible when you (will) need it to bill mental health medicare part B claims.

When you submit electronic enrollment requests to file digital claims to Medicare, you’ll need to use your PTAN to file the paperwork successfully. (Yes, we do this for free for you when signing up with our mental health billing service).

You’ll also need it to make phone calls to Medicare to verify eligibility and benefits and to inquire about claims status.

In short, record your PTAN from Medicare for inquiries and follow up.

On the bright side: you don’t need to know your PTAN to submit paper claims to Medicare, but you’ll need it for everything else, so again, record it!

(And probably also make sure to back everything up with your smart phone’s camera! This is a great “Oh shit” way to have all your important documents recorded somewhere, so if you really do need to find something really important, you can spend 10 hours digging through a ton of photos to do so. But back everything up!!! !!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!)