Setting up a practice: my whole paper trail

Every lesson in this section explains one form. This one is the map. It is the order I actually filed things for CUTI LLC, my solo telehealth counseling practice in Eugene, from the day the LLC existed to the most recent malpractice renewal, with the document I filled at each step rebuilt from my own file and attached to the lesson that explains it. Names of supervisors, numbers of every kind, addresses, and dollar figures are replaced with bracketed placeholders. What is left is the shape of the thing: what each form asked, what I answered, and where I would answer differently now.

Two warnings before the timeline. First, I was a registered associate for the first two years of this, so the credentialing steps happened under supervision and some of them happened before the LPC. Second, the order below is the order I did it in, not the order I would recommend; the recommended order is in the closing section.

Year one: the entity, the tax number, the associate registration

January 2023. I filed the Articles of Organization on the Oregon Business Registry and the LLC existed the same day. The registry record, with its history table, is attached to step 3 of the LLC series; look at the history table before you look at anything else, because the two lines from 2024 are the most useful part of this whole lesson. The same month I got the EIN online and the IRS confirmation notice arrived, the CP 575, attached to step 4. The registry and the EIN took an afternoon between them.

Also January 2023. The Board registered me as a professional counselor associate, and the following month the certification board issued the CADC III. The Professional Disclosure Statement every client signed during the associate years, with the supervisor's name and the fee removed, and the Board's monthly supervision report as a blank grid, are attached to the notes and treatment plans lesson. Neither is a business filing, but both were asked for by payers later, which is why they are in this trail.

Year two: the lapse, and the payer forms

March and April 2024. The annual report went unfiled and the state administratively dissolved the LLC. A reinstatement filing five weeks later put it back to Active. I include this because it cost a filing fee, a week of worry, and a permanent pair of lines on a public record that every credentialing analyst can read. Calendar the renewal the day you file the articles.

April 2024. Oregon Medicaid enrollment: the OHA provider enrollment agreement and the provider disclosure statement, both attached to the payer contacts lesson. The disclosure statement is the one that asks about ownership, managing employees, and criminal history for a company whose only owner and only employee is you; you still answer every line. The same month PacificSource validated the practice on its Medicaid form; the tax identification effective date on that form is the first of April, which matters when a claim from March is denied.

May through July 2024. CareOregon's provider information form in May, PacificSource's behavioral health panel application in June, and its contract information form in July, all attached to the payer contacts lesson. Read them side by side: the same six facts on every one, and one of them with my name misspelled by whoever typed it on the payer's side. Check every copy that comes back for signature.

December 2024. A busy month. The beneficial ownership report went to FinCEN, attached to step 5; FinCEN's interim final rule of March 26, 2025 removed the requirement for U.S. companies and its final rule of August 11, 2026 made the exemption permanent, so read that attachment as history, and as a worked example of the two questions that turned on the formation date: a company formed before January 1, 2024 was an existing reporting company and left the company applicant part empty. The registered agent changed to a commercial agent and an amended annual report followed, both visible in the registry history. And the CADC continuing education log got filled in, forty-three hours with most of the certificates dated December, attached to the credentialing packet lesson. The lesson there is to log hours as you earn them.

Year three: the license, the election, and the state form

March 2025. The LPC was issued on the tenth, and I printed the Board's verification page the next day; that printout is attached to the credentialing packet lesson because it is the document payers accept as primary-source verification. A week later, PacificSource's full credentialing packet, attached to the payer contacts lesson. On that packet I ticked No on the directory listing question; do not do that.

July 2025. Form 2553, the S corporation election, signed in July with an effective date of the following January, attached to the entity comparison lesson alongside my W-9 as a sole proprietor and the W-9 for the LLC. The same month I enrolled in EFT and ERA through Availity, so remittances would post instead of arriving as paper; that form, and Trillium's separate vendor form, are attached to the superbills and CPT codes lesson.

September and October 2025. The Oregon Practitioner Credentialing Application for Moda, on the 2024 revision because that is what the payer sent, attached to the credentialing packet lesson next to OHA's own 2025 OPCA and OPRA PDFs. Then Providence's practitioner questionnaire in October, attached to the payer contacts lesson. The telehealth consent that a CCO asked to see, with its care-coordination paragraph, is attached to the telehealth lesson.

Year four: renewals

January 2026. The registry renewal, on time this year. August 2026. The malpractice policy renewed, and the declarations page attached to the credentialing packet lesson says occurrence on its coverage form line. Every payer application copies that line as two boxes, claims-made or occurrence, so a renewal is the day to reread it and send each payer whose file predates the current policy a fresh certificate.

The order I would do it in now

1. Articles of Organization and the EIN in one sitting, and a calendar entry for the annual report before you close the browser.
2. Operating agreement, bank account, and the W-9 for the LLC the same week, so no payer ever holds a W-9 with your Social Security number on it.
3. NPI, malpractice policy, and a CAQH profile, in that order, before any payer form. Read the declarations page and write down claims-made or occurrence.
4. Oregon Medicaid enrollment and disclosure, then the CCO forms, then commercial plans, using OHA's current OPCA when a payer asks for it.
5. EFT and ERA enrollment the day the first contract lands.
6. The S corporation question with a CPA once the practice has a year of numbers, not before.

Everything above is what I filed; none of it is legal, tax, or accounting advice. The forms change, the rules change, and the person who checks them before you sign should be you.