The legal doctrine of “corporate practice of medicine” states that only a doctor or a corporation owned by a doctor can own a medical facility. This means that nurse practitioners and other healthcare providers, such as non-medical professionals, cannot own a medical spa. Physician assistants may own minority shares in a medical spa or serve as a minority partner with a doctor or doctors, but they cannot legally work with doctors in a partnership setting. If you hire a doctor and have no medical history, it is illegal.
If you are a licensed doctor working with an unlicensed person, your exposure is even greater. You may face criminal charges and even lose your medical license. Even if you are a medical professional, such as a nurse, you cannot open a medical spa on your own. You must have a doctor associated with the medical spa.
Some nurses mistakenly believe that because they have a medical license they can do whatever they want, but this is not the case. The company must be an organized healthcare system and the doctor must be responsible for advertising and marketing. At no time is the physician allowed to delegate his or her advertising and marketing responsibilities to a third party. The MSO (Management Services Organization) can perform any business function in addition to offering medical services, so you need to partner with a doctor or a company that is owned by a doctor.
Failure to properly operate a medical spa or MSO could result in civil liability, administrative penalties, and even criminal charges. Medical spas offer skincare services as well as medical-grade aesthetic treatments such as hair transplantation, acne therapies, Botox injections, and more. Patient fees for the provision of various medical spa services can only be charged by doctors or companies owned by doctors. To open such a business, you need to form an MSO (Management Services Organization) which will charge you a fee for working in their space. With the increase in medical spas, there have been more malpractice problems in the medical community with horrendous consequences of surgeries and failed results. It is important to remember that only doctors can own medical spas and that any violation of the Doctrine of Corporate Practice of Medicine can result in civil liability, administrative sanctions, and even criminal sanctions.
