Does a med spa have to register or hold a license, state by state
The same question, answered for 51 states from each state’s own law. States disagree on this, which is the point — an answer that is right in one is wrong next door. Every entry below is a statute or board rule we verified, most recently Sep 8, 2026.
Facility · part of The Practice Perimeter
| State | What its rule says | Cited to |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Every physician proposing to perform any LLBD procedure must register with the board before performing any procedure, must notify the Board in writing of any change or addition of facility location where such procedures occur or are offered, and must renew that registration annually by 31 JANUARY. | Ala. Admin. Code r. 250-X-2-.01 (what it costs to open — the Board’s own fee schedule, in dollars) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Alaska | The cited rules do not settle this — no med-spa-specific registration appears. They do set a Board of Barbers and Hairdressers shop license, and a non-practitioner shop owner must employ a practitioner manager; no corporate-practice bar on ownership. | AS 08.80.480(4) (definition of “compounding” — and what it does NOT reach) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Arizona | Dispensing without the board’s registration draws a civil penalty of AT LEAST $300 AND UP TO $1,000 for each transaction plus a bar on further dispensing. | Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 32-1901 (“compounding”) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Arkansas | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa facility license appears; office-based surgery rules bind the physician, not the site. A medical corporation does need a Medical Board certificate of registration, and a cosmetology establishment its own license. | 17 CAR § 140-2904(a)-(c) (Office-based surgery) Sep 4, 2026 |
| California | Not as a "med spa" — California has no dedicated med-spa license or registration category; a med spa is legally a medical practice under the Medical Practice Act, so the usual physician licensure and delegation rules apply to it instead. | Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 4127(a) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Colorado | No — Colorado has no med spa license, registration, or facility permit; the gate is the professional service corporation and individual licensure. Dispensing drugs needs a registered outlet unless a practitioner does it personally for their own patient. | Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-280-120(4) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Connecticut | The cited rules do not settle this — they define a med spa as an establishment performing cosmetic medical procedures, excluding licensed health care facilities, and require it to employ or contract a physician, PA, or APRN; no facility license is set out. | Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-903c(a)(1) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Delaware | The cited rules set no med spa–specific license — but premises offering or rendering aesthetics need a Board shop license, renewed biennially, unless the aesthetics are performed by licensed health care professionals within their own scope. | 24 Del. C. § 2502(7) (Delaware EXPRESSLY preserves office-use ordering by a prescriber) Sep 6, 2026 |
| District of Columbia | Yes — a corporation counts as a "person," so it may not offer a regulated health occupation unless licensed, registered, certified, or exempt; and a site offering esthetics or master esthetics also needs a shop/salon owner license for each place of business. | D.C. Code §3-1210.01 (Practicing without license, registration, or certification) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Florida | No med-spa-specific license — Florida has none in effect. But an entity providing health care services and billing for reimbursement needs an AHCA clinic license for each location unless it is wholly owned by physicians or other licensed practitioners. | Fla. Stat. § 465.0158(1) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Georgia | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa facility license appears in them; they do require a non-physician-office facility offering cosmetic laser services other than hair removal to file its consulting physician's details with the Board. | Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 480-11 (compounding — office use) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Hawaii | No — Hawaii issues no license or registration specific to a med spa, and neither chapter 453 nor the medical board's rules license a facility where medicine is practiced; a beauty shop license is still required wherever cosmetology or esthetics is practiced. | Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-10(a)(1)-(3) (ch. 453 and Haw. Admin. R. ch. 16-85 surveyed) Sep 8, 2026 |
| Idaho | The cited rules do not settle this — there is no general med spa license in them; compounding must be tailored to a named patient, and a clinic that sends compounded vials home becomes a prescriber drug outlet, which must register with the board. | Idaho Code § 54-1704(7) (definition of “Compounding”) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Illinois | Yes — a med spa organized as a professional limited liability company, professional service corporation or medical corporation must register with IDFPR and file the articles with the Secretary of State; a salon registration cannot be used to operate a med spa. | 225 ILCS 85/3 (“compounding”) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Indiana | Yes — from January 1, 2027 a med spa must be registered to do business in Indiana, and the application must name its responsible practitioner and that practitioner's collaborating or supervising physician; operating unregistered risks a $5,000 fine. | Ind. Code § 25-26-13-11 Sep 2, 2026 |
| Iowa | The director must ensure the identity, licensure and certification of everyone performing medical aesthetic services is visibly displayed at each medical spa and given in writing to each patient, and must ensure the board receives written verification of the education and training of the nonphysician persons and… | Iowa Code § 155A.13C(1) (office stock without a patient-specific prescription is a LICENSED activity) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Kansas | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa facility license or registration appears in them. They license people: anyone practicing esthetics needs a board license, and practicing a healing-arts profession without a board credential is unlawful. | K.S.A. § 65-1626(k)(1)(A) (compounding must meet a need an FDA-APPROVED DRUG CANNOT FILL) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Kentucky | The cited rules do not settle this — there is no med spa–specific registration; a premises where esthetics is done for the public or for consideration is a "salon" (initial fee $100), but Chapter 317A does not reach physicians' incidental esthetic work. | Ky. Rev. Stat. §317A.010(1) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Louisiana | Not directly — the cited rules create no "med spa" license as such; they do require a license for any facility where cosmetology or esthetic services are offered, and an individual medical license for anyone practicing medicine there. | La. Rev. Stat. §37:562(C) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Maine | The cited rules do not settle this — none creates a med spa registration. They do require a level 1 or 2 establishment license at each location where aesthetics or cosmetology is practiced, except for physicians and supervised staff acting within their scope. | 32 M.R.S. § 13702-A(4) (compounding is a PHARMACIST’s act, and every limb is patient-specific but one) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Maryland | The cited rules do not settle this — individuals need a cosmetology or limited esthetician license for esthetic services and a Board license to practice medicine; the Board's fee schedule lists shop licenses, but no cited rule says when a spa needs one. | Md. Code, Bus. Occ. & Prof. §5-301(a) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Massachusetts | No — Massachusetts has no med spa facility license or registration category; the licensing obligations attach to the individuals practicing inside. Separate sterile compounding licensure falls on the pharmacy, not on the spa. | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, § 39G(a)(1)–(2) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Michigan | ARTICLE 15 of the Public Health Code — the article that licenses health professions — creates no med-spa license and no facility category for one, and its obligations follow the licensee. | Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.17748(1) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Minnesota | No — the Medical Practice Act sets no med spa facility license, registration or medical director requirement; it licenses the person doing the act. But the cosmetology/esthetics side of a spa still needs a salon license ($350 initial, $225 renewal). | Minn. Stat. ch. 147 (surveyed in full via the chapter text) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Mississippi | No — Mississippi issues no med-spa-specific license; under the medical practice act and Part 2635 a physician's office registers only for Level II or III office surgery. Other permits attach by activity — e.g., a salon license where esthetics is practiced. | Miss. Admin. Code Title 30, Part 2635, Rule 2.2(D) (Title 73, ch. 25 and Part 2635 surveyed) Sep 8, 2026 |
| Missouri | Not as a "med spa" — the cited rules only license cosmetology establishments: a spa where esthetics is performed must register before opening ($100 for up to three operators), and opening unregistered adds a $100 delinquent fee. | 20 CSR 2220-2.400(C) (stock ahead of the prescription needs a HISTORY of that prescription) Sep 7, 2026 |
| Montana | Not directly — Montana issues no med spa-specific license, and the medical chapter licenses only physicians and residents, not facilities. But a place where esthetics is practiced for compensation must hold a salon or shop license. | Mont. Code Ann. § 37-3-301(2) (Title 37, ch. 3 and ARM Title 24, ch. 156 surveyed) Sep 8, 2026 |
| Nebraska | Not directly — the cited rules create no "med spa" credential, but premises offering esthetics must be licensed as a salon in their own right ($150 to open, $150 biennial), separately from each esthetician's own license ($95, then $118). | Neb. Admin. Code tit. 172, ch. 2, § 002 (the fee schedule a new esthetics salon actually pays) Sep 7, 2026 |
| Nevada | No chapter 449 facility license attaches to a med spa as such. | Nev. Rev. Stat. §449.030 Sep 3, 2026 |
| New Hampshire | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa-specific registration appears in them; they show only that estheticians (anyone practicing esthetics) and the shops they work in are licensed by the board of barbering, cosmetology, and esthetics. | N.H. Rev. Stat. §313-A:1, VII Sep 3, 2026 |
| New Jersey | The cited rules do not settle this — they name no med spa registration; they do require each physician to hold a current biennial Board registration, and set shop license, inspection and biennial renewal fees for cosmetology shops. | N.J.A.C. 13:39-11.18 Sep 2, 2026 |
| New Mexico | The cited rules do not settle this — they define an aesthetic healthcare facility as a business providing aesthetic procedures to the public and require an APRN or other licensed independent clinical supervisor; no facility license or registration is stated. | 16.12.14.7(A)(3) NMAC (Definitions; eff. 2024-05-21) Sep 4, 2026 |
| New York | Not as a med spa — Title 8 has no facility license or registration for one; regulation attaches to the practitioner, so only an Article 131 licensee may practice medicine. New York does license appearance enhancement businesses ($60) for cosmetology services. | N.Y. Educ. Law § 6810(1) Sep 2, 2026 |
| North Carolina | Yes — a professional corporation practicing medicine must obtain a certificate of registration from its licensing board before it opens or operates, and renew on the board's schedule; no separate med spa license appears in the cited rules. | N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-85.3(c) Sep 2, 2026 |
| North Dakota | The cited rules do not settle this — they contain no med spa registration requirement; they only cap the cosmetology/esthetics establishment license fee at $150 original and $100 renewal, alongside separate licenses for the individuals practicing. | N.D. Cent. Code § 43-15-01 (definition of “Compounding” — two limbs, one of them not for sale) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Ohio | No separate med spa license — but to take delivery of dangerous drugs the premises needs a terminal distributor of dangerous drugs license unless every owner is a prescriber, and even that exemption disappears for compounded drugs or controlled substances. | Ohio Rev. Code § 4729.51(B) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Oklahoma | The cited rules do not settle this — none creates a med spa registration; they license the premises as a Cosmetology establishment or Cosmetic Studio and require anyone practicing medicine to hold an individual medical license first. | Okla. Stat. tit. 59, § 353.1(8) (definition of “Compounding” — and the anticipatory limb) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Oregon | The cited rules do not settle this — they define a "facility" as an establishment providing services in a field of practice and set facility license fees ($140 application, $155 per year), but none of them imposes the duty to hold one or any med spa license. | Or. Rev. Stat. §690.005(7) (“Facility” defined) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Pennsylvania | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa facility license appears in them; they show only that an osteopathic licensee's corporate documents need Board approval before Corporation Bureau filing, and that salons offering esthetics pay licensing fees. | 49 Pa. Code § 27.601 Sep 2, 2026 |
| Rhode Island | The cited rules do not settle this — no med spa license appears in them; they do license esthetician shops (a shop licensed to do esthetics, with a set shop-license fee) and they place laser/IPL and non-ablative treatment inside the practice of medicine. | R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-19.1-2 (compounding is NOT copies of a commercially available product) Sep 6, 2026 |
| South Carolina | The cited rules do not settle this — they apply the cosmetology chapter to cosmetologists, nail technicians and estheticians under LLR and provide for salon registration ($100 initial fee, with inspection), but name no med spa facility license. | S.C. Code §40-13-5 (Application of chapter) Sep 3, 2026 |
| South Dakota | Yes — the cosmetology side is licensed by premises: a salon or booth license costs $75 to open and $55 to renew, on top of each practitioner's own license; separately, anyone practicing medicine there must hold a board license. | S.D. Admin. R. 20:42:03:03(12)-(13) (what it costs to open — the salon license, in the Commission’s own rule) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Tennessee | Yes — any entity offering cosmetic medical services must register with the Board of Medical Examiners before operating and pay the fee; a physician's own office is exempt unless it holds out as a med spa or over 50% of patients were elective cosmetic. | Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1140-07-.02(1); 1140-07-.04(1) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Texas | The cited rules do not settle this — no general med spa registration appears in them; they do require a separate laser hair removal facility license for each location (unless physician-owned) and a TDLR establishment license for cosmetology premises. | Tex. Occ. Code § 562.152 Sep 2, 2026 |
| Utah | The cited rules do not settle this — none impose a med spa facility license; they require the supervisor's name and license to be posted at the cosmetic medical facility, and a professional corporation may render services only through licensed individuals. | Utah Code § 58-17b-102(18)(b)(ii) (preparing a commercially available drug is NOT compounding) Sep 7, 2026 |
| Vermont | No med spa license as such — esthetics, cosmetology, and manicuring may be done only in shops licensed by the Director, subject to the exceptions in sections 273 and 281 and Director's rules; the cited rules add no facility license for injections or lasers. | Vt. Stat. tit. 26, §1(2) (“Cosmetology” defined) Sep 3, 2026 |
| Virginia | No — Virginia issues no med-spa license and no facility registration for one; duties attach to the licensed practitioners inside. A premises operating as an esthetics spa does need a spa license — $220 application, $220 renewal, $440 reinstatement. | Va. Code § 54.1-3410.2(A) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Washington | Washington creates no med-spa license and no facility registration on the medical side. | Wash. Rev. Code § 18.64.011 (“compounding”) Sep 2, 2026 |
| West Virginia | Yes — a salon offering aesthetics needs a board-approved salon license, with written notice 20 days before opening for inspection, plus fees; separately, a corporation practicing medicine needs a certificate of authorization from the medical board. | W. Va. Code § 30-5-4 (definition of “Compounding” — the two limbs, and which one permits sale) Sep 6, 2026 |
| Wisconsin | Not as a med spa — ch. 448 has no med-spa license or facility registration category, and anyone practicing medicine still needs a personal board license; a skin-care premises does hold an Aesthetics Establishment credential, renewed 03/31 of odd years. | Wis. Stat. § 450.11(3) Sep 2, 2026 |
| Wyoming | Not directly — the cited rules create no med spa license; a Board salon license is required for any place where cosmetology is practiced, and medical services in a salon must sit in a separate room and be performed only by licensed medical staff. | Wyo. Stat. Ann. §33-12-120(a)(xvi) Sep 3, 2026 |
Every state, in its own words
Alabama
ALABAMA ACTUALLY REGISTERS THE PROVIDER, AND DATES THE RENEWAL. Every physician proposing to perform any LLBD procedure must REGISTER WITH THE BOARD BEFORE performing any procedure, must notify the Board in writing of any change or addition of facility location where such procedures occur or are offered, and must renew that registration ANNUALLY BY 31 JANUARY. And the reporting duty has a clock on it: every physician who performs or supervises a covered procedure must report to the Board WITHIN THREE BUSINESS DAYS any event that resulted in emergency transfer to a hospital, unscheduled hospitalization related to the procedure, third-degree dermal injury, or death. On the drug side, the claims below come from the PHARMACY ACT and the Board of Pharmacy’s rules, and they answer the SUPPLY question rather than naming any drug: § 34-23-11(a) puts a practitioner’s own PERSONAL compounding, dispensing, administering or supplying TO HIS OR HER OWN PATIENT outside that Act altogether, and § 34-23-1 defines the routes by which a compounded drug otherwise reaches a clinic — a licensed PHARMACY, a 503B OUTSOURCING FACILITY holding an Alabama permit, or a REPACKAGER, whose definition expressly excludes a physician dispensing to a patient in his or her own practice. Compounding pharmacies must meet USP-NF by rule. These claims establish the SUPPLY route. None of them mentions GLP-1, none surveys the Board of Medical Examiners’ LLBD chapter for a compounded-drug provision, and none reaches whether any particular drug may be compounded.
Ala. Admin. Code r. 250-X-2-.01 (what it costs to open — the Board’s own fee schedule, in dollars) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Alabama answer, with the rest of the section →Alaska
ALASKA LICENSES SOME PREMISES, AND IT IS NOT THE MEDICAL BOARD THAT DOES IT. AS 08.13.120 requires the Board of Barbers and Hairdressers to license SHOPS — and a shop for PERMANENT COSMETIC COLORING must be inspected and certified by the Department of Environmental Conservation before its license issues. A shop owner is licensed without examination, but an owner who is not a practitioner may not conduct business without employing a manager who is one. A med spa offering permanent cosmetic coloring is therefore inside a premises-licensing regime administered by that board.
AS 08.80.480(4) (definition of “compounding” — and what it does NOT reach) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Alaska answer, with the rest of the section →Arizona
⚠️ ARIZONA REGISTERS THE DISPENSING DOCTOR, AND PRICES THE FAILURE PER TRANSACTION. Dispensing without the board’s registration draws a civil penalty of AT LEAST $300 AND UP TO $1,000 FOR EACH TRANSACTION plus a bar on further dispensing. Before dispensing, the physician must give the patient a prescription and tell them it MAY BE FILLED AT A PHARMACY OF THEIR CHOICE; the doctor may dispense only to their own patient, for conditions they are treating, and must be PRESENT while a medical assistant or nurse does the work.
Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 32-1901 (“compounding”) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Arizona answer, with the rest of the section →Arkansas
⚠️ ARKANSAS REACHES THE ROOM THROUGH ITS OFFICE-BASED SURGERY RULE. Each office-based surgery must be within the physician’s scope of practice, of a duration and complexity that can be completed with the patient discharged during normal operational hours, and preceded by an evaluation the physician RECORDS — the patient’s condition, complicating morbidities, intrinsic risks and the invasiveness of what is planned. Separately, every physician must report any malpractice claim or lawsuit to the board within TEN DAYS of receipt or notification. Whether Arkansas separately registers a med spa as premises was not surveyed here. The cosmetology rules license the ESTABLISHMENT and price it: any person, firm or corporation conducting or operating a cosmetology establishment or mobile salon must obtain a current establishment license before operating, on an application to the Department of Health, with the proprietor responsible for compliance with the law and the State Board of Health’s rules; a new establishment or mobile salon is $100 one-time, renewal $50.00 annually, relocation $50.00, and renewal of a practitioner license $50.00 biennially, all nonrefundable. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s compounding standard is direct: compounding a drug product that is commercially available, or that is essentially a copy of a commercially available FDA-approved product, is GENERALLY PROHIBITED, with exceptions only for a slightly different product on a physician’s documented patient-specific medical need or where the product is not commercially available — unavailability documented before compounding — and pharmacies compounding or dispensing compounded products must comply with section 503A and the USP compounding chapters.
17 CAR § 140-2904(a)-(c) (Office-based surgery) · verified Sep 4, 2026
The full Arkansas answer, with the rest of the section →California
⚠️ CALIFORNIA PUTS A SEPARATE LICENSE ON THE STERILE COMPOUNDER. “A PHARMACY THAT COMPOUNDS STERILE DRUG PRODUCTS SHALL POSSESS A STERILE COMPOUNDING PHARMACY LICENSE as provided in this article.” Compounded semaglutide is a sterile drug product, so this is the license a California practice’s supplier must hold — distinct from its ordinary pharmacy license.
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 4127(a) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · read at Public.Law — California Codes
The full California answer, with the rest of the section →Colorado
⚠️ ARTICLE 240 CREATES NO MED SPA LICENSE AND NO COSMETIC FACILITY REGISTRATION, and the wider Title 12 never uses the phrase “medical spa”. But the PHARMACY article gates what the practice may hold and do: only a REGISTERED PRESCRIPTION DRUG OUTLET, or another outlet registered under § 12-280-119(1)(d), may compound or dispense a prescription — the exception being a practitioner compounding PERSONALLY for patients under their own care. Colorado’s office-stock compounding route exists only for VETERINARIANS; the human channel to compounded stock is a 503B OUTSOURCING FACILITY, which Colorado defines as one distributing compounded drugs WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION ORDER.
Colo. Rev. Stat. § 12-280-120(4) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Colorado answer, with the rest of the section →Connecticut
Connecticut has a medical spa statute of its own. It defines a medical spa as an establishment in which cosmetic medical procedures are performed, and defines “cosmetic medical procedure” by a FUNCTIONAL test — any procedure directed at improving appearance that does not meaningfully promote the proper function of the body or prevent or treat illness — followed by examples the statute expressly says are not exhaustive, among them cosmetic injections, soft tissue fillers, neurotoxins, dermarolling, dermabrasion beyond the stratum corneum, peels above thirty per cent below pH 3.0, lasers and intense pulsed light. A procedure absent from that list is not thereby outside the statute. Each spa must post the names and specialty areas of the clinicians who perform those procedures at the premises, on any website it maintains, and in a written notice given to each person beforehand. Connecticut licenses the PRACTITIONER, and the amounts are written into the statute in words: no person may practice as an esthetician without a Department of Public Health license or temporary permit, the initial esthetician application fee is one hundred dollars, and a registered hairdresser and cosmetician pays one hundred dollars for examination and one hundred dollars for each renewal. These claims do not carry a salon or facility license fee. On compounded drugs the Pharmacy Practice Act defines compounding to include the preparation of drugs in anticipation of prescriptions based on routine, regularly-observed prescribing patterns, and its sterile-compounding section draws the office-stock line: a sterile compounding pharmacy may only provide PATIENT-SPECIFIC sterile pharmaceuticals to patients, to practitioners of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, dentistry or veterinary medicine, or to a licensed hospital or health care facility; one that provides sterile pharmaceuticals without a patient-specific prescription or medical order must also hold a Department of Consumer Protection certificate of registration and any required federal license or registration, and may keep no more than a thirty-day on-site inventory of sterile pharmaceuticals.
Conn. Gen. Stat. §19a-903c(a)(1) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Connecticut answer, with the rest of the section →Delaware
Delaware licenses the PREMISES as well as the practitioner. Under the aesthetics chapter, no person, firm, corporation, partnership or other legal entity may operate, maintain or use premises for the offering or rendering of aesthetics services without first securing a shop license from the Board of Cosmetology and Barbering, renewed biennially — and no person may engage in the practice of aesthetics without being licensed. ONE EXCLUSION IS ON RECORD, AND IT IS NOT ESTABLISHED HERE AS AN EXEMPTION FROM PREMISES LICENSURE. The definition of an “aesthetics shop” expressly does not apply to places where aesthetics are performed by licensed health care professionals acting within the scope of their licensed profession — but that excludes one DEFINED TERM, and the parallel definition of a “cosmetology shop” reaches any place where aesthetics, or any of their practices, are performed for compensation and carries no such carve-out. Which definition a physician-run facility falls under is not resolved by these claims. They survey the cosmetology and aesthetics chapter, and do not report on registration requirements elsewhere in Delaware law.
24 Del. C. § 2502(7) (Delaware EXPRESSLY preserves office-use ordering by a prescriber) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Delaware answer, with the rest of the section →District of Columbia
No person may practice, attempt to practice, or OFFER to practice a health occupation regulated under the chapter unless currently licensed, registered or certified, or exempted — and “person” is defined to include a corporation, firm, partnership, society, school or other entity, so the prohibition reaches the business as well as the individual. These claims do not create a med-spa or facility registration regime; they make offering the regulated service without a credential unlawful whoever offers it. The cosmetology rules add a PREMISES license and its price. No person may operate a salon or shop in the District without the appropriate business licenses; each salon or shop owner obtains a salon or shop license from the Board without examination, one license per place of business with the appropriate fee for each; and the Beauty and Grooming Services License issues only after the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection has verified the professional license, compliance, payment of the fees the Director establishes, and a Certificate of Occupancy. The licensing-fee chapter prices the practitioner: a cosmetologist pays a $65.00 application fee and $110.00 for a license of up to two years, $110.00 to renew ($155.00 for managers and instructors) and $50.00 for late renewal; a barber pays the same $65.00 and $110.00, including for an owner license. The licenses the Board issues include the esthetician, the master esthetician and the shop and salon owner. On compounded drugs what is on record is DEFINITIONAL, and should be read as no more than that: the pharmacy regulations define compounding as preparation on a practitioner’s prescription drug order, or for research, teaching or analysis and not for sale or dispensing, and include preparation IN ANTICIPATION of prescription orders based on routine, regularly observed prescribing patterns; a pharmacist must direct and supervise all compounding and the pharmacy must log every compounded drug; and the Health Occupations Revision Act places the compounding of drugs, as authorized by federal and District law, inside the practice of pharmacy. These claims do not survey a District rule on non-patient-specific or office-use compounded supply, and whether a compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide product may be supplied to or stocked by a med spa is not answered by them.
D.C. Code §3-1210.01 (Practicing without license, registration, or certification) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full District of Columbia answer, with the rest of the section →Florida
Florida has NO med-spa-specific registration or licensure law in effect; HB 625 (2025) died in committee. ⚠️ BUT THERE IS A REGISTRATION MOST PRACTICES DO NOT HOLD: a practitioner who dispenses drugs FOR FEE OR REMUNERATION OF ANY KIND, DIRECT OR INDIRECT, must register with their board as a DISPENSING PRACTITIONER — and a registered practitioner MAY NOT DISPENSE a Schedule II or III controlled substance, which is where testosterone sits.
Fla. Stat. § 465.0158(1) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Florida answer, with the rest of the section →Georgia
GEORGIA IMPOSES FACILITY REQUIREMENTS ON PREMISES PROVIDING COSMETIC LASER SERVICES, AND TWO CARVE-OUTS DECIDE WHETHER THEY REACH YOU. The first is the physician office, which is excepted from these requirements. The second is narrower than it looks: it exempts hair removal USING LASERS OR PULSED LIGHT DEVICES, not hair removal at large, and “cosmetic laser services” is defined to reach energy-based procedures using ultrasound, cryolipolysis, microwave or radio-frequency devices as well. A facility that is not a physician office must hold an agreement with a consulting physician who examines each patient beforehand or who has delegated that examination, must have that physician available for emergency consultation, and must file the physician’s name, address and credentials with the Board. Georgia’s pharmacy rules separately prohibit distributing non-patient-specific compounded preparations for office use by a human practitioner, leaving the 503B outsourcing facility as the named lawful channel.
Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 480-11 (compounding — office use) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Georgia answer, with the rest of the section →Hawaii
HAWAII LICENSES THE PRACTITIONER AND, ON THE COSMETOLOGY SIDE, THE BEAUTY SHOP; THE SECTIONS CITED HERE CONTAIN NO MEDICAL-SPA LICENSE. A beauty shop license names the shop, at least one licensed beauty operator, and an owner who is responsible for ensuring that only licensed individuals practice in it; no one may operate a beauty shop or practice cosmetology for commercial purposes without a license, and cosmetology may be practiced only in a licensed barber shop or beauty shop, with listed exceptions. Fees are set by the director by rule, and the fee rule prices them in dollars: a $20 application fee for a beauty operator, $50 for a beauty shop, $50 for a physician’s permanent license application, $20 for a physician assistant, and $100 for a pharmacy application with a $65 original permit fee. Physicians pay application, examination, and license fees and renew by January 31 of each even-numbered year. An esthetician applicant needs 1,200 hours of apprentice training or 600 hours in a beauty school. A pharmacy may not be opened without a permit, a permit is required to distribute or dispense samples of prescription drugs, though that paragraph does not interfere with furnishing samples directly to physicians for use in their professional practice, and a permit is required to engage in the business of preparing, manufacturing, or compounding any drug; compounding prescriptions other than by or under the immediate supervision of a registered pharmacist violates the pharmacy chapter, and the Board of Pharmacy’s rules make failure to follow USP chapters 795 and 797 unprofessional conduct.
Haw. Rev. Stat. § 439A-10(a)(1)-(3) (ch. 453 and Haw. Admin. R. ch. 16-85 surveyed) · verified Sep 8, 2026
The full Hawaii answer, with the rest of the section →Idaho
Idaho licenses the PREMISES: an “establishment” is a place licensed under the Barber and Cosmetology Services Act, other than a licensed school, where barbering, barber-styling, cosmetology or electrology is practiced — and it is unlawful to practice any occupation licensed, certificated or registered under the chapter in a place or establishment that is not licensed or registered for such practice, except as the chapter specifically authorizes. It is also unlawful for an establishment license holder to employ, or allow to be employed in or about the establishment, a person who is not licensed or certificated under the chapter, UNLESS that person is performing tasks that do not require a license or certificate. The chapter carries its own exceptions, including for licensees serving persons unable by reason of ill health, medical confinement or involuntary incarceration to come to a licensed establishment. The Barber and Cosmetology Services Licensing Board’s fee rule prices the credential as CEILINGS rather than fixed amounts: an individual original license or certificate not to exceed $30 with a $30 application and $30 annual renewal, an instructor license $35, an establishment, dealer or facility license or registration not to exceed $25 with $25 renewal, a school license $360 and $100 renewal, apprentice registration $30, endorsement $45 and reinstatement $35, all non-refundable and aggregable for biennial licensure. The amount actually charged within each ceiling is not surveyed by these claims.
Idaho Code § 54-1704(7) (definition of “Compounding”) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Idaho answer, with the rest of the section →Illinois
There is a registration step people miss here and a trap people fall into: the PROFESSIONAL ENTITY itself registers with IDFPR, and a salon registration will not do — Illinois is explicit that a cosmetology salon cannot be used to run a med spa.
225 ILCS 85/3 (“compounding”) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Illinois answer, with the rest of the section →Indiana
Indiana has a DEDICATED MED-SPA LAW — a registration regime phased in across 2026 and 2027, which is unusual in this corpus.
Ind. Code § 25-26-13-11 · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Indiana answer, with the rest of the section →Iowa
⚠️ IOWA MAKES THE MEDICAL DIRECTOR ANSWERABLE FOR WHAT THE PREMISES DISCLOSES. The director must ensure the identity, licensure and certification of everyone performing medical aesthetic services is VISIBLY DISPLAYED at each medical spa and given IN WRITING to each patient, and must ensure the board receives written verification of the education and training of the nonphysician persons and laser technicians performing delegated services WITHIN 14 DAYS of a request. Every licensee must report each adverse judgment and malpractice settlement within THIRTY DAYS. Whether Iowa separately registers a med spa as premises was not surveyed here. The PRICE sits in the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing’s fee chapter: a license to practice barbering and cosmetology arts and sciences, a license by endorsement or reciprocity, or an instructor’s license is $60 with a $60 biennial renewal, and an ESTABLISHMENT license is $80 with its own biennial renewal, all nonrefundable.
Iowa Code § 155A.13C(1) (office stock without a patient-specific prescription is a LICENSED activity) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Iowa answer, with the rest of the section →Kansas
Kansas licenses the PRACTICE and the SCHOOL on the face of these claims. No person may engage in the practice of cosmetology, esthetics, nail technology or electrology unless the person holds a valid license issued by the board to engage in that practice, and tattooing, cosmetic tattooing and body piercing each require their own board license. Schools require a board license, granted on a showing of the applicant’s competency and assurance of compliance with the act, the board’s rules and the sanitation standards adopted by the secretary of health and environment. Licenses for cosmetologists, cosmetology technicians, estheticians, electrologists and manicurists are renewable biennially on application, fee and a successfully completed written renewal examination prescribed by the board. No claim here states a separate salon or establishment license, so a Kansas operator should confirm the premises requirement with the board or counsel.
K.S.A. § 65-1626(k)(1)(A) (compounding must meet a need an FDA-APPROVED DRUG CANNOT FILL) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Kansas answer, with the rest of the section →Kentucky
Kentucky licenses the PREMISES through the cosmetology board: a “beauty salon” means any establishment in which the practice of cosmetology is conducted for the general public or for consideration, and PRACTICING IN AN UNLICENSED SALON — or in a salon knowing it is not in compliance with the chapter or the board's regulations — is a ground on which the board may refuse, suspend or revoke a license or permit, impose probationary conditions, levy an administrative fine, or reprimand. A “cosmetologist” is a person who engages in the practice of cosmetology for the public generally or for consideration, REGARDLESS OF THE NAME UNDER WHICH THE PRACTICE IS CONDUCTED, and an “esthetician” is a person licensed by the board to engage in esthetic practices. These claims survey the cosmetology chapter and do not report on registration requirements elsewhere in Kentucky law. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s compounding regulation is direct: preparations compounded for human use shall NOT be essential copies of a commercially available drug product unless authorized by 21 U.S.C. 353(a), and an essential copy is one with the same active ingredient in the same, similar or easily substitutable strength by the same route — unless a prescriber determines a change for an identified patient that produces a significant difference for that patient.
Ky. Rev. Stat. §317A.010(1) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Kentucky answer, with the rest of the section →Louisiana
Louisiana licenses the PREMISES, and the legislature said so in the purpose clause: the licensure of all persons who perform cosmetology, of all facilities where cosmetology is taught, OF ALL FACILITIES WHERE COSMETOLOGY SERVICES ARE OFFERED, and of all persons who supervise individuals performing cosmetology, are declared necessary to ensure that only qualified persons practice at facilities meeting appropriate standards. A “beauty shop” or “salon” is any premises upon or within which cosmetology is practiced for a fee — expressly excluding premises where the persons exempted by R.S. 37:581 practice or do business, a section these claims do NOT survey. Cosmetology itself is defined by means and by component practice: using the hands, mechanical or electrical apparatuses or appliances, or cosmetic preparations, in any combination of esthetics, hair dressing and manicuring for compensation. Esthetics is an enumerated list, and it reaches micro-dermabrasion, epidermabrasion and particle exfoliation. The fee schedule is in the statute itself: each initial certificate of registration and each annual renewal costs $35.00 for a cosmetologist, esthetician, manicurist, teacher/instructor or manager and $55.00 for a beauty shop or salon, mobile salon or home care, with $50.00 for the initial inspection of a salon, mobile salon or booth rental and $50.00 for a booth rental, special or temporary permit; an expired certificate restored within three years costs twice the applicable fee for each year expired, not to exceed three hundred dollars. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s rules answer the GLP-1 question by DEFINITION: compounding does not include the compounding of drug products that are ESSENTIALLY COPIES OF A COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE PRODUCT — a copy being the same active ingredient in the same, similar or easily substitutable strength by the same route, with a change of less than 10 percent not counting — and a pharmacy may prepare a variation only where a prescriber documents a clinically significant difference on the prescription and the pharmacy does not prepare copies regularly or in inordinate amounts, or a copy where the product is discontinued, on the FDA drug shortage list or temporarily unavailable. The rules apply regardless of the location of the patient, a practitioner’s office included, and define practitioner administered compounds as products compounded on a prescriber’s medical order for administration by the prescriber.
La. Rev. Stat. §37:562(C) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Louisiana answer, with the rest of the section →Maine
Maine licenses the PREMISES and grades them: a person, firm, corporation or other legal entity may not provide services in, operate or cause to be operated a level 1 or level 2 establishment where aesthetics is practiced unless that establishment is licensed by the director, and the license authorizes operation only at the location it was issued for. Individual practice licensure is separate and also required. ONE BOUNDARY IS CARRIED HERE AND THE OTHER IS NARROWER THAN IT LOOKS. The defined practice of aesthetics does not include the diagnosis, treatment or therapy of any dermatological condition. The medical exemption, by its own words, withholds only the chapter’s PROHIBITIONS AND PENALTIES from persons authorized to practice medicine and those under their supervision and control, and only when they act within the scope of their profession or occupation — these claims do not establish that it lifts the establishment-license requirement, so a physician-run facility offering aesthetics should confirm that with the director or counsel. These claims survey the barbering and cosmetology chapter and do not report on registration requirements elsewhere in Maine law.
32 M.R.S. § 13702-A(4) (compounding is a PHARMACIST’s act, and every limb is patient-specific but one) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Maine answer, with the rest of the section →Maryland
An individual must be licensed by the Maryland Board of Cosmetologists before practicing cosmetology in the State, and esthetic services are carried on a limited license within that scheme. These claims reach the INDIVIDUAL cosmetology credential only; they do not address facility-level registration of a med spa, which is a separate question we do not answer here. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s sterile compounding chapter supplies the definitions: compounding is the preparation, mixing, assembling, packaging or labeling of a drug as the result of a practitioner’s prescription drug order or practitioner/patient initiative, for research or teaching and not for sale or dispensing, or IN ANTICIPATION of a prescription drug order based on routine, regularly observed prescribing patterns; a compounded sterile preparation is a sterile medication prepared in the pharmacy under accepted aseptic technique. Whether a compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide product may be supplied to or stocked by a med spa is not answered by these definitions. The COST of the credential is delegated rather than stated: the Board of Cosmetologists sets by regulation reasonable application, licensing, renewal, reinstatement, certification, permit and inspection fees, sized to approximate the cost of maintaining the Board, and publishes a schedule of them; examination fees may not exceed the cost of the examinations. The statute names no amount; the Board’s published schedule, read on the Board’s own page, lists a shop license (limited or full service) at $225 original and $56 renewal, and a cosmetologist or limited esthetician license at $28 original and $28 renewal, all nonrefundable and subject to change with public notice.
Md. Code, Bus. Occ. & Prof. §5-301(a) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Maryland answer, with the rest of the section →Massachusetts
CHAPTER 112 — the chapter that registers every regulated profession in the commonwealth — was surveyed in full and creates no med-spa license and no facility category for one.
Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 112, § 39G(a)(1)–(2) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Massachusetts answer, with the rest of the section →Michigan
ARTICLE 15 of the Public Health Code — the article that licenses health professions — creates no med-spa license and no facility category for one, and its obligations follow the licensee. ⚠️ COMPOUNDING IS A DIFFERENT MATTER ENTIRELY: a person providing COMPOUNDING SERVICES must be licensed as a pharmacy or manufacturer AND, if a pharmacy, separately AUTHORIZED to compound — and an OUTSOURCING FACILITY MUST HOLD A MICHIGAN PHARMACY LICENSE, not merely a federal registration.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 333.17748(1) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · read at Internet Archive snapshot — evidence of a page, not the current rule
The full Michigan answer, with the rest of the section →Minnesota
⚠️ CHAPTER 147 CREATES NO MED SPA LICENSE, REGISTRATION OR FACILITY PERMIT, and names no medical director — the chapter was surveyed in full. The MEDICAL board therefore licenses the person performing the act, not the premises. A separate chapter licenses and prices the COSMETOLOGY salon — $350 for an initial three-year salon license, $225 to renew — and that schedule expressly does not cover the medical side of a med spa.
Minn. Stat. ch. 147 (surveyed in full via the chapter text) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Minnesota answer, with the rest of the section →Mississippi
MISSISSIPPI LICENSES THE PRACTITIONER AND REGISTERS THE PHYSICIAN’S OFFICE FOR TWO THINGS, SURGERY AND DISPENSING; THE SECTIONS CITED HERE CONTAIN NO MEDICAL-SPA LICENSE. A physician performing Level II or Level III office surgery must register with the State Board of Medical Licensure. The rule defines surgery generally to include any operative procedure using lasers and any elective aesthetic or cosmetic procedure; how the Level II and Level III tiers themselves are drawn is not stated in the sections cited here. A physician who dispenses must obtain a certificate from the medical board after ten hours of pharmacology or dispensing education, then a dispensing physician facility permit from the Board of Pharmacy for each location at $300 a year, and must personally dispense; a physician dispenser may not offer compounded products for resale or dispense another practitioner’s or a pharmacy’s compounded product, though compounding for immediate administration is not prohibited. A pharmacy may compound patient-specific medications for office administration by a practitioner but may not offer compounded products to practitioners for resale, and a compounding pharmacy may sell a limited volume to a practitioner for office use. A cosmetology salon and each practitioner must be licensed by the cosmetology board, whose fees are set in dollars in both the statute and its rule: $50 for a practitioner, $85 for a salon application and inspection, $60 for a salon renewal. The medical board’s published schedule charges $550 for a physician or physician assistant initial license and $300 for annual renewal, the statutory ceiling; the nursing board charges $100 for the RN examination, $100 for active renewal, and $100 for controlled-substance prescriptive authority, initial or renewal.
Miss. Admin. Code Title 30, Part 2635, Rule 2.2(D) (Title 73, ch. 25 and Part 2635 surveyed) · verified Sep 8, 2026
The full Mississippi answer, with the rest of the section →Missouri
WHAT THESE CLAIMS ESTABLISH IS PERSON AND SCHOOL LICENSURE, AND — under the Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners’ own fee rule — PREMISES LICENSURE TOO: 20 CSR 2085-3.010(2)(C) prices a cosmetology establishment of up to three operators at $100 to license and $75 to renew, and separately prices opening one without registering first. The Board of Cosmetology and Barber Examiners exists for the purpose of licensing all persons engaged in the practice of cosmetology, manicuring, esthetics and barbering, and a school of cosmetology must obtain a license from the board before opening. The chapter defines a “cosmetology establishment” as that part of any building wherein any of the classified occupations are practiced, including space rented within a licensed establishment, and gives the board power to prescribe by rule for the INSPECTION of cosmetology establishments and schools and their sanitary conditions — but no claim on record here states a statutory establishment license, so a Missouri operator should confirm the premises requirement with the board or counsel. The apprenticeship route is set by hours per occupation: no less than three thousand hours for cosmetologists, eight hundred for manicurists and fifteen hundred for esthetics.
20 CSR 2220-2.400(C) (stock ahead of the prescription needs a HISTORY of that prescription) · verified Sep 7, 2026
The full Missouri answer, with the rest of the section →Montana
MONTANA LICENSES THE PRACTITIONER AND, ON THE COSMETOLOGY SIDE, THE PREMISES; IT HAS NO MEDICAL-SPA LICENSE. Nothing in the medical practice act or the Board of Medical Examiners’ rules licenses a facility. A salon or shop where esthetics is practiced needs a license from the department, may open on a provisional license once licensure and inspection fees are paid, and may not house another business outside the board’s scopes of practice unless that area is separated by a full-length partition. The Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists sets the fees in a rule, in dollars: $100 for a practitioner license, $125 for a salon or shop license, $150 for a salon or shop inspection, and $95 for a booth rental license. The Board of Medical Examiners’ physician license application fee is $375, and a physician assistant’s is $375. A practitioner who wants to dispense drugs to the practitioner’s own patients must register with the Board of Pharmacy, dispense only at the practitioner’s office, only to the practitioner’s own patients, with an offer of counseling, and only drugs necessary to the treatment; the registration is $240 with a $150 annual renewal, and a registrant who compounds must do so under the pharmacy compounding rule. A medical practitioner OTHER THAN A PHARMACIST may not own a community pharmacy, and that prohibition does not stop a practitioner dispensing a drug the dispensing statute permits; the rebate ban is not carved out that way — no medical practitioner may solicit or receive a rebate, refund, discount, commission, or other valuable consideration from a community pharmacy based on drug sales to the practitioner’s patients.
Mont. Code Ann. § 37-3-301(2) (Title 37, ch. 3 and ARM Title 24, ch. 156 surveyed) · verified Sep 8, 2026
The full Montana answer, with the rest of the section →Nebraska
Nebraska licenses BOTH the practitioner and the premises. No person may operate a cosmetology establishment unless it is licensed by the department, and no person may practice cosmetology anywhere other than a licensed establishment except as the act specifically permits; a salon license carries its own physical requirements, beginning with a fixed, permanent structure separated from other business or residential activity. Esthetics itself is the practice for compensation of using an electrical or mechanical apparatus or applying cosmetic preparations upon the skin for PERSONAL BEAUTY CARE, and an esthetician is a person licensed to perform all of the practices of esthetics. None of these provisions creates a MED-SPA registration as such — the premises license they require is the cosmetology one. The price is set by rule rather than by statute: an esthetics salon pays $150 to open and $150 on each biennial renewal, and the esthetician working in it pays $95 and then $118. On compounded drugs the Pharmacy Practice Act draws both lines in one section: a person authorized to compound may do so on a practitioner’s order, for research or teaching, or FOR OFFICE USE ONLY and not for resale, in compliance with USP chapters 795 and 797 — but no person shall compound a drug that is ESSENTIALLY A COPY OF AN APPROVED DRUG unless the board has determined a shortage or a patient is allergic to the approved product, nor a drug withdrawn as unsafe or one the FDA or the board has barred from compounding.
Neb. Admin. Code tit. 172, ch. 2, § 002 (the fee schedule a new esthetics salon actually pays) · verified Sep 7, 2026
The full Nebraska answer, with the rest of the section →Nevada
No chapter 449 facility license attaches to a med spa as such. Nevada requires a license to operate a medical facility, but its licensing definition of “medical facility” enumerates seventeen categories and neither a med spa nor a physician’s office is among them — that enumerated list is what was surveyed, and it does not speak to business registration generally. What Nevada does regulate directly is the PLACE where dermal fillers may be injected. The cosmetology chapter, by contrast, licenses the PREMISES and prices it in statute: any person wishing to operate a cosmetological establishment must apply through the owner, manager or person in charge with a detailed floor plan, submit the inspection and licensing fees, and pass an opening inspection before the license issues. The establishment license is $200 for 2 years or $400 for 4 years, the initial inspection $15 and an additional inspection $25; an initial esthetician or cosmetologist license is set by the Board within a statutory band of $50 to $100 for 2 years or $100 to $200 for 4 years. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s regulations define compounding as the preparation, mixing or assembling of a drug product with at least one prescription-drug component for dispensing pursuant to a prescription or chart order, require a record for each compounded product made in excess of a prescription or in bulk, and treat an OUTSOURCING FACILITY — a sterile-compounding facility registered under 21 U.S.C. § 353b — as a manufacturer that must hold a Board manufacturer license and may dispense to identified individual patients on a prescription only if it is also licensed as a pharmacy.
Nev. Rev. Stat. §449.030 · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Nevada answer, with the rest of the section →New Hampshire
New Hampshire defines the esthetician simply as any person practicing esthetics, and the definition of esthetics itself — an enumerated list of surface treatments — is set out in the supervision section of this reference. The PRICE of the credential sits in the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification’s fee rule: under Plc 1002.07 a barber, cosmetologist, esthetician, manicurist or master barber personal license is $55 for two years, an instructor license $82, a SHOP LICENSE $110 for two years, a school license $346 and a tanning facility registration $170, each covering initial issuance, renewal or reinstatement. These claims do not address med-spa or medical facility registration. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s sterile-compounding rule answers the GLP-1 question three ways: a compounder shall not compound a sterile product of an FDA-approved product when the product is COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE, and may use bulk ingredients only where no commercial source exists, such as an FDA backorder listing; a compounder preparing more than 50 dosage units of NON-PATIENT-SPECIFIC preparations must be registered with the FDA as a manufacturer or 503B facility, and one supplying fewer than 50 units to a provider for administration must hold a memorandum of understanding for each product and hand the practitioner the lot’s test results; and “compounding” itself includes anticipatory preparation on regularly observed prescribing patterns and preparation on a practitioner’s order that may be sold to the practitioner for office administration to a SPECIFIC patient, in limited quantities, not for resale.
N.H. Rev. Stat. §313-A:1, VII · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full New Hampshire answer, with the rest of the section →New Jersey
New Jersey stacks five duties on the practice entity: a current biennial registration, a trading name constrained to the owners’ surnames or a descriptive phrase, a posted fee notice, a duty to notify the Board when terminating an affiliation with a GENERAL BUSINESS CORPORATION, and an authorized practitioner on site while patients are receiving professional services — that last one expressly carving out genuinely mobile services such as house calls and durable medical equipment management.
N.J.A.C. 13:39-11.18 · verified Sep 2, 2026 · read at Internet Archive snapshot — evidence of a page, not the current rule
The full New Jersey answer, with the rest of the section →New Mexico
⚠️ NEW MEXICO REACHES THE FACILITY THROUGH THE LICENSEES INSIDE IT. 16.12.14 NMAC, effective 2024-05-21, defines an AESTHETIC HEALTHCARE FACILITY as a business or other practice that provides aesthetic healthcare procedures to the general public, — the definition that brings a med spa inside the nursing board’s reach at all. Every patient encounter must generate a healthcare record, and the medical board separately requires licensees and health care entities to report malpractice payments and professional review actions. Whether New Mexico also registers such a facility as premises was not surveyed here. On compounded drugs the Board of Pharmacy’s non-sterile compounding part is direct: a non-sterile drug product may be compounded in a licensed pharmacy as a result of a practitioner’s prescription order based on the practitioner-patient-pharmacist relationship, or in limited anticipatory quantities on a history of valid prescriptions within that relationship, and a COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE product may be compounded for dispensing to individual patients only where it is not reasonably available through normal channels in time to meet the patient’s needs and the prescriber has requested compounding, or where the compounded product is changed to produce a significant difference for that patient as the prescriber authorizes or is in the patient’s best interest — with the prescriber and patient informed that the product will be compounded. Sterile compounding is governed separately and is not surveyed by these claims.
16.12.14.7(A)(3) NMAC (Definitions; eff. 2024-05-21) · verified Sep 4, 2026
The full New Mexico answer, with the rest of the section →New York
THE EDUCATION LAW has no med-spa article and no med-spa registration category — Title 8 was surveyed in full and enumerates its articles by profession, so a medical spa is regulated as a medical practice rather than as a facility. ⚠️ WHAT DOES BITE IS THE PHARMACY ARTICLE: a prescription drug must be dispensed on a prescription and compounded or dispensed BY A LICENSED PHARMACIST, and a prescriber who does not own or work for a pharmacy MAY NOT DISPENSE MORE THAN A SEVENTY-TWO HOUR SUPPLY — with an exception for drugs DILUTED, RECONSTITUTED OR COMPOUNDED BY THE PRESCRIBER.
N.Y. Educ. Law § 6810(1) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full New York answer, with the rest of the section →North Carolina
North Carolina imposes a step that is easy to miss: the PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION ITSELF must hold a certificate of registration from its licensing board before it opens its doors, and that certificate expires.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-85.3(c) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full North Carolina answer, with the rest of the section →North Dakota
THE SECTION THAT LOOKS LIKE A FACILITY RULE IS REPEALED. 43-17-16 reads, in full, "License required. Repealed by S.L. 1987, ch. 525, § 13." What operates alongside it is individual licensure under the Board of Medicine, and — under a DIFFERENT board — premises licensure: § 43-11-28(2) caps an “Establishment, original license” at $150.00 and its annual renewal at $100.00: an application to practice medicine goes to the Board of Medicine through its executive director, and every applicant must file a written application on the board’s forms showing it satisfies all of the chapter’s requirements. These claims establish how an individual is licensed; they do not establish any premises or facility registration.
N.D. Cent. Code § 43-15-01 (definition of “Compounding” — two limbs, one of them not for sale) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full North Dakota answer, with the rest of the section →Ohio
⚠️ OHIO DOES LICENSE THE PREMISES — THROUGH THE BOARD OF PHARMACY, NOT THE MEDICAL BOARD. Prescribers and prescriber-owned entities are exempt from TERMINAL DISTRIBUTOR OF DANGEROUS DRUGS licensure, but the exemption evaporates for drugs “COMPOUNDED OR USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF COMPOUNDING” and for any schedule I to V controlled substance — so a practice holding compounded semaglutide or testosterone needs the license its prescribers would otherwise not have needed. The office-use compounding route exists but turns on COMMERCIAL AVAILABILITY. What Ohio otherwise regulates is the paper trail behind each delegated operator.
Ohio Rev. Code § 4729.51(B) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Ohio answer, with the rest of the section →Oklahoma
Licensure in Oklahoma attaches to the person, and the Act states it as a precondition: every person must be in legal possession of an unrevoked license or certificate BEFORE practicing medicine and surgery, or any branch of it, within the meaning of the Allopathic Act, the Osteopathic Medicine Act or the Interventional Pain Management and Treatment Act. These claims establish individual licensure. Premises licensure exists too, but it belongs to a DIFFERENT board: the Cosmetology and Barbering Act's own fee schedule at § 199.14(A) carries a Cosmetology establishment license at $120.00 biennially and $90.00 on renewal, and a Cosmetic Studio license at the same rates, alongside the individual Facial/Esthetics operator license at $80.00 — so a single-operator studio pays a premises fee and a practitioner fee. What Oklahoma does NOT have, on anything surveyed here, is a med-spa-specific facility registration.
Okla. Stat. tit. 59, § 353.1(8) (definition of “Compounding” — and the anticipatory limb) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Oklahoma answer, with the rest of the section →Oregon
Oregon prices the premises in the Health Licensing Office’s fee rule rather than in the cosmetology chapter, which defines the “facility” — an establishment operated on a regular or irregular basis for the purpose of providing services in one or more fields of practice — and stops there. The fees, established by the Office in consultation with the Board, are: a facility license application of $140 and original issuance of $155 for one year, renewed at $155 for one year; a practitioner certificate application of $30 per field of practice, original issuance of $35 for two years and renewal of $65 for two years. These claims describe cosmetology facility licensure and its cost; they do not address med-spa or medical facility registration, and the chapter’s definition of esthetics, which draws the line at medical diagnosis or treatment, is set out in the supervision section of this reference. On compounded drugs the Pharmacy Act’s only provision on record here is definitional: “manufacture” does not include the preparation or compounding of a drug by a practitioner as an incident to administering or dispensing it in the course of professional practice. That is what the statute says; these claims do not survey the Board of Pharmacy’s compounding rules, and whether a particular compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide product may be supplied to or administered in a med spa is not answered by them.
Or. Rev. Stat. §690.005(7) (“Facility” defined) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Oregon answer, with the rest of the section →Pennsylvania
Two duties here are easily missed, and neither is a facility license: a licensee’s fictitious practice name must not be misleading, deceptive, untrue or fraudulent, and a nurse practitioner’s collaborative agreement has to be kept current with the Board.
49 Pa. Code § 27.601 · verified Sep 2, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute
The full Pennsylvania answer, with the rest of the section →Rhode Island
Rhode Island licenses the SHOP as a class of license in its own right: an “esthetician shop” means a shop licensed under the chapter to do esthetics of any person, and a “hair design shop” means a shop licensed under the chapter to do barbering or hairdressing/cosmetology, or both. The division issues licenses to persons engaged in, or desiring to engage in, the practice of barbering, hairdressing and cosmetic therapy and/or manicuring or esthetics, and to instructors, provided that no license is issued to anyone under eighteen years of age. Licenses are divided into classes issued to applicants who have qualified for each class, with the hairdresser’s and cosmetician’s license requiring not less than one thousand hours of continuous study and practice. These claims survey the barbering and hairdressing chapter and do not report on registration requirements elsewhere in Rhode Island law. The PRICE sits in the Department of Health’s fee statute rather than the cosmetology chapter: the chapter sends the applicant to a fee established in regulation and to the renewal fee set forth in § 23-1-54, and that section lists a $25.00 application fee and $25.00 renewal application for barbers and hairdressers and a SHOP LICENSE of $170.00 initial and $170.00 renewal.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-19.1-2 (compounding is NOT copies of a commercially available product) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full Rhode Island answer, with the rest of the section →South Carolina
South Carolina’s cosmetology chapter states that Article 1, Chapter 1 applies to cosmetologists, nail technicians and estheticians regulated by the Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. The salon-practice provision quoted alongside it authorizes practice in a registered salon for persons registered as a barber or master hair care specialist. Neither provision addresses the setting in which an esthetician may work, and neither addresses med-spa or medical facility registration — those remain open questions we do not answer for this state. The PRICE is on the Board’s published schedule: a salon costs $100 to apply and $72 to renew, a booth renter the same, a school $300 and $122; an esthetician, nail technician or registered cosmetologist pays $45 by examination or $60 by endorsement and $52 to renew; initial and reinstatement applications require an inspection.
S.C. Code §40-13-5 (Application of chapter) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full South Carolina answer, with the rest of the section →South Dakota
South Dakota licenses the PERSON for each practice and inspects the PLACE. No person may engage in the practice of cosmetology unless licensed by the commission, and no person may engage in the practice of esthetics unless licensed by the commission — esthetics being one of the practices that constitutes cosmetology. The chapter defines a “booth” as any part within a licensed salon that is rented or leased for the purpose of rendering licensed cosmetology services as a SEPARATE, INDEPENDENT SALON BUSINESS, and an “esthetician” as any person who, for compensation, engages in the practice of esthetics but not in other practices of cosmetology. The commission, any state or local board of health, or any officer or employee of them, may enter during business hours any salon or school licensed under the chapter AND ANY OTHER PLACE where the practice of cosmetology is followed, practiced or taught, for inspection and enforcement.
S.D. Admin. R. 20:42:03:03(12)-(13) (what it costs to open — the salon license, in the Commission’s own rule) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full South Dakota answer, with the rest of the section →Tennessee
Tennessee REGISTERS medical spas — uniquely in this corpus. An application, a fee, a named medical director who accepts responsibility in writing, and annual renewal. And the definition reaches a physician’s own practice once more than half its patients come for elective cosmetic work.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 1140-07-.02(1); 1140-07-.04(1) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Tennessee answer, with the rest of the section →Texas
⚠️ TEXAS IS THE PERMISSIVE END OF THIS CORPUS ON COMPOUNDED STOCK: a pharmacy MAY dispense and deliver a REASONABLE QUANTITY of a compounded drug to a practitioner FOR OFFICE USE, with no commercial-availability condition — but injectables are sterile preparations, and a pharmacy may not compound and dispense one unless it holds a separate STERILE-COMPOUNDING LICENSE. Texas otherwise licenses the LASER HAIR REMOVAL FACILITY: its own license, separately for each location, plus a written contract with a consulting physician to set and audit its protocols. ⚠️ THE CARVE-OUTS DECIDE WHETHER THAT REACHES YOU — facilities owned or operated by a physician for the practice of medicine, licensed hospitals and hospital-owned clinics are outside it.
Tex. Occ. Code § 562.152 · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Texas answer, with the rest of the section →Utah
UTAH PUTS FIVE POSTING AND DISCLOSURE DUTIES ON THE SUPERVISOR, WHICH IS A DIFFERENT SENTENCE FROM PUTTING THEM ON THE FACILITY — THE STATUTE NAMES WHO MUST ENSURE THEM. A supervisor performing or supervising a cosmetic medical procedure must ensure their name is PROMINENTLY POSTED at the cosmetic medical facility, a copy of their LICENSE IS DISPLAYED ON THE WALL, the patient receives WRITTEN INFORMATION naming both the supervisor and the person performing the NONABLATIVE procedure, the patient is given a TELEPHONE NUMBER ANSWERED WITHIN 24 HOURS for follow-up, and the facility’s CONTRACT WITH A MASTER ESTHETICIAN who performs a nonablative procedure there is kept on the premises. Sedation carries named external standards incorporated by reference, and medical records must be kept per applicable law and the AMA Code of Medical Ethics. Whether Utah separately registers a med spa as premises was not surveyed here. The PRICE of the credential is on the Division’s published fee schedule: an esthetician license is $60.00 to apply and $52.00 to renew, a master esthetician $85.00 and $68.00, a basic esthetics permit $60.00 and $52.00, a cosmetology license $60.00 and $52.00, and an esthetician school $110.00 each way. These claims carry practitioner and school fees only; no salon or establishment fee is surveyed.
Utah Code § 58-17b-102(18)(b)(ii) (preparing a commercially available drug is NOT compounding) · verified Sep 7, 2026
The full Utah answer, with the rest of the section →Vermont
Vermont licenses the SHOP and prices it in statute. The practices of barbering, cosmetology, esthetics or manicuring are permitted ONLY IN SHOPS LICENSED BY THE DIRECTOR, subject to the exceptions the chapter names; a shop is not granted a license unless it complies with the Director’s rules and has a designated licensee responsible for its overall cleanliness, sanitation and safety; and the Director issues the license to the person who owns or controls the shop once the required fee is paid. The amounts sit in the Office of Professional Regulation’s statutory fee schedule in Title 3 rather than in the cosmetology chapter: an application for licensure of a barbering or cosmetology shop is $355.00, an individual barber, cosmetologist, nail technician or esthetician application is $120.00, and biennial renewal is $285.00 for the shop and $155.00 for the individual. The chapter folds esthetics into its definition of cosmetology. These claims describe shop licensure under the cosmetology chapter; they do not address registration of a medical facility. On compounded drugs the Pharmacy chapter licenses the CHANNEL rather than the product: a drug outlet is licensed in one or more classifications that include a compounding drug outlet and an outsourcing drug outlet, each with an $800.00 initial application fee, and “practice of pharmacy” means compounding, dispensing and labeling drugs among other things. These claims do not survey the Board’s rules on non-patient-specific or office-use compounded supply, and whether a compounded semaglutide or tirzepatide product may be supplied to a med spa is not answered by them.
Vt. Stat. tit. 26, §1(2) (“Cosmetology” defined) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Vermont answer, with the rest of the section →Virginia
Title 54.1, ch. 29 creates no med-spa facility category — on the medical side Virginia licenses the practitioner and regulates the procedure by rule. The Board for Barbers and Cosmetology does license premises: a spa license is $220 on application and $220 to renew, twice that to reinstate. ⚠️ AND THE DRUG CONTROL ACT DECIDES WHAT THE PRACTICE MAY HOLD: compounding is patient-specific and tied back to the § 54.1-3303 relationship, compounded product may NOT be passed on for subsequent distribution or sale — the only common-ownership exception runs to hospitals and health systems administering to their own patients, which a med spa is not — and the office-use route reaches human practitioners only where there is A CRITICAL NEED TO TREAT AN EMERGENCY CONDITION. What they receive must be labeled “FOR ADMINISTERING IN PRESCRIBER PRACTICE LOCATION ONLY”.
Va. Code § 54.1-3410.2(A) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Virginia answer, with the rest of the section →Washington
Washington creates NO MED-SPA LICENSE AND NO FACILITY REGISTRATION on the medical side. The cosmetology side does license premises, and prices them: a Salon/Shop license is $121 to get and $121 to renew, against $35 for an esthetician. ⚠️ BUT THE DRUG LAW DECIDES WHAT THE ROOM MAY HOLD: reconstituting a sterile product to its FDA labeling, on a prescription, ADMINISTERED IMMEDIATELY or per package labeling, is NOT compounding — stray from the label and it is. Anything actually compounded for a practitioner’s office use must meet USP standards, the seller stays responsible for its quality, and adulterating a drug is a MISDEMEANOR carrying forfeiture.
Wash. Rev. Code § 18.64.011 (“compounding”) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Washington answer, with the rest of the section →West Virginia
West Virginia licenses the PREMISES through the Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists: before opening, any person, firm or corporation owning or operating a salon must have the salon approved by the board as meeting the requirements for the place of business, notify the board in writing at least twenty days before the proposed opening date so an inspection can be made, and pay the applicable fees. No salon may render a service, except through a licensee or certificate holder, that would be a licensed practice if an individual did it. The chapter’s definition of aesthetics is itself bounded: it reaches the listed acts when done for compensation AND NOT FOR THE TREATMENT OF DISEASE. The Board of Barbers and Cosmetologists’ legislative fee rule, Series 6, PRICES the premises in digits: a salon or school opening inspection fee of $50.00, an initial license fee of $40.00 and an annual renewal of $40.00 for a cosmetology, barber, nail technology, hair styling, waxing or aesthetic salon; the practitioner’s license is $35.00 to issue and $35.00 to renew annually, reciprocity $100.00, and a booth or chair rental registration $15.00 with $15.00 annual renewal.
W. Va. Code § 30-5-4 (definition of “Compounding” — the two limbs, and which one permits sale) · verified Sep 6, 2026
The full West Virginia answer, with the rest of the section →Wisconsin
CHAPTER 448 WAS SURVEYED AND ISSUES NO MED-SPA LICENSE AND NO FACILITY REGISTRATION — it licenses PERSONS. The cosmetology side does credential the premises, as an “Aesthetics Establishment” renewing on the same date as the practitioner for the same $11. ⚠️ WHAT DOES BIND THE PRACTICE IS THE PHARMACY LAW: only a pharmacist or practitioner, or agents DIRECTED, SUPERVISED AND INSPECTED by one, may prepare, compound or dispense a prescription drug, and the compounding standards are USP-NF chapters 795 and 797 INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE as state law — breach of which is unprofessional conduct.
Wis. Stat. § 450.11(3) · verified Sep 2, 2026
The full Wisconsin answer, with the rest of the section →Wyoming
Wyoming licenses the PREMISES through the cosmetology board, and the board’s own rules put a PRICE on it. A “salon” means any place LICENSED UNDER THE ACT in which cosmetology is practiced, and no person, association, partnership or corporation may operate a salon without first securing a license from the Board — the application goes in at least fifteen days before opening, with the fees, a completed inspection sheet and a detailed floor plan. The statute delegates the amounts to the board, and the board’s fee chapter names them: a salon application fee of $225.00, a salon license of $75.00 per year, a personal license (cosmetologist, nail technician, esthetician, hairstylist or instructor) of $48.00 per year and an independent contractor license of $75.00 per year, all non-refundable. The salon rules also draw the med spa line inside the premises: medical services are listed among the services allowed in a salon that the board does not regulate, but all medical services and treatments must be offered in a SEPARATE ROOM from cosmetology services and only licensed medical staff may perform them. On the drug-supply side the Board of Pharmacy’s general practice rules answer the compounded-GLP-1 question directly: a prescription may not be dispensed to a practitioner on an order that is not issued for one specific patient, and an order for “office use” is not a valid order; “compounding” excludes work done in an FDA-registered outsourcing facility and includes anticipatory preparation based on routine, regularly observed prescribing patterns. The Act’s exemption for licensed physicians and other named professionals is set out in the supervision section of this reference; these claims do not themselves carry it.
Wyo. Stat. Ann. §33-12-120(a)(xvi) · verified Sep 3, 2026
The full Wyoming answer, with the rest of the section →Which states this covers
51 of the 51 states for which we publish statute-cited rules. That is not every state, and nothing above should be read as describing one that is not listed — the answer genuinely differs, so a neighbouring state is not a guide. We monitor all 50 state legislatures plus the FDA and the Federal Register daily; the cited rule set is narrower than the monitoring and is growing on its own timetable.
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MedSpaRadar is regulatory monitoring and reference: it summarizes public laws, regulations and agency actions and links each to its source. It is not legal, medical, or compliance advice, and using it creates no attorney-client relationship. A summary can lag its source or leave out detail, and monitoring itself can be interrupted — so an absence of alerts means nothing reached you, not that nothing happened. Read the cited source, check its effective date, and confirm any change to your operations or clinical practice with qualified health-law counsel and your medical director. Legislative data via LegiScan (CC BY 4.0).