The Physical Therapy Licensure Compact lets physical therapists (PTs) and physical therapist assistants (PTAs) work in member states under a "compact privilege" — a permission slip from a member-state's licensing board that authorizes practice without a full state license. It's one of the most operationally mature healthcare compacts.
The PT Compact is open to PTs and PTAs holding an active, unencumbered license in a member state. The applicant declares one state as their home state of legal residence and pays a per-state privilege fee for each additional member state where they want practice rights.
Applicants must have passed the NPTE (National Physical Therapy Exam) for their license tier, have no current disciplinary action or license restriction, and have no felony convictions on record. The privilege is tied to the home-state license — if it lapses or becomes restricted, the privilege ends.
The PT Compact currently has 39 member jurisdictions issuing privileges.
last_verified: 2026-05 · sourced from data/compacts.json
Applications go through the PT Compact's central portal. You verify your home state license, complete a federal/state criminal background check, and pay a per-state fee for each member state where you want a privilege.
The compact privilege fee is approximately $75 per state in addition to any state-specific surcharges. Processing time is typically 1-3 business days once the background check clears. Confirm current fees and timing directly with the PT Compact. last_verified: 2026-05.
When your NPI lookup returns a PT, DPT, MPT, or PTA credential, TeleVerify auto-detects PT Compact eligibility and asks you to confirm your home state and the member-state privileges you hold. Once confirmed, every session where the patient is located in one of your privileged states is automatically tagged compliant_compact. Telehealth-specific rules within each state (consent, modality, supervision for PTAs) still apply on top of compact coverage.