The Practice Perimeter
Med spa regulation looks like a thousand unrelated rules. It is not. Every state answers the same seven questions about an aesthetic practice — it just answers them differently, through different instruments, on different timetables. Those seven answers are the perimeter your practice operates inside, and they are what MedSpaRadar tracks.
7 decisions · one per numbered section below
The seven decisions
In the order an operator meets them: before you open, before you treat, while you trade, and if a line gets crossed. Each names the question and the kind of instrument that changes its answer — the answers themselves live on the state pages, with citations.
- 1
Ownership & corporate practice of medicine
Who is allowed to own this business, and in what corporate form?
What moves it: Medical-practice acts, corporate-practice doctrine, and the statutes that carve out exemptions for professional entities.
Cited per state: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
- 2
Physician supervision & delegation
Which physician relationship does the state require, and what must that physician actually do?
What moves it: Delegation statutes and medical-board rules, which change through ordinary rulemaking rather than legislation.
Cited per state: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
- 3
Good-faith examination
What has to happen before a patient can be treated, and can any of it be remote?
What moves it: Prescribing-practice law, standard-of-care rules, and telehealth statutes — three separate instruments that can move independently.
Cited per state: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
- 4
RN / NP scope for injectables
Which license may perform which treatment, and under whose order?
What moves it: Nurse practice acts, board position statements, and scope-of-practice bills — three separate instruments, each amendable on its own timetable.
Cited per state: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
- 5
Med-spa registration & licensing
Does the premises itself have to be registered or licensed?
What moves it: Dedicated med-spa acts, where a state has one, and facility-licensure regimes where it does not.
- 6
Advertising rules
What may this practice claim about its services, its staff, and their credentials?
What moves it: Professional advertising rules and consumer-protection statutes, enforced by two different agencies.
Cited per state: Alabama · Alaska · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado · Connecticut · Delaware · District of Columbia · Florida · Georgia · Hawaii · Idaho · Illinois · Indiana · Iowa · Kansas · Kentucky · Louisiana · Maine · Maryland · Massachusetts · Michigan · Minnesota · Mississippi · Missouri · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada · New Hampshire · New Jersey · New Mexico · New York · North Carolina · North Dakota · Ohio · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania · Rhode Island · South Carolina · South Dakota · Tennessee · Texas · Utah · Vermont · Virginia · Washington · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming
- 7
Disciplinary landscape
What happens when one of the six above is crossed?
What moves it: Penalty provisions, unlicensed-practice offences, and the boards and attorneys general that bring them.
Where the answers actually exist
The framework describes every state. The cited answers do not yet. We monitor all 50 state legislatures plus the FDA and the Federal Register daily, and a further 44 primary sources — licensing boards, state licensing divisions, attorneys general and one state rules register, across 22 states — which is where several of the questions above are actually decided. They are named individually with the endpoint we read. Monitoring is what we read, not what we have written up: we publish primary-source-cited rules for 51 states — Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming — currently 2140 cited rules in total, most recently verified Sep 28, 2026. Everywhere else, a page says so rather than filling the gap.
That is the difference this framework is built to make visible: a structure you can check against, and an explicit blank where we have not done the work yet.
The Practice Perimeteris MedSpaRadar’s organizing framework for regulatory monitoring. It is not a legal doctrine, and nothing on this page is legal, medical, or compliance advice. Verify against the primary source and consult qualified counsel before acting. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).
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