Can a management company run the business side of a med spa in California?
Ownership · part of The Practice Perimeter
⚠️ AND THIS IS THE MSO percentage-fee question answered in a sentence. “The payment or receipt of consideration for services other than the referral of patients that is based on a percentage of gross revenue or similar type of contractual arrangement shall not be unlawful if the consideration is commensurate with the value of the services furnished or with the fair rental value of any premises or equipment leased or provided” by the recipient to the payer. A percentage-of-revenue management fee is lawful in California where it is commensurate with value — and unlawful where it is not.
Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 650(b) · verified Sep 2, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related California rules
A lay-owned management services organization (MSO) may provide administrative/back-office services by contract, but may not control medical records, clinical hiring/firing, coding/billing, or the selection of medical equipment or drugs — doing so is illegal corporate practice of medicine.
Medical Board of California — Medical Spas guidance · verified Jul 26, 2026
Businesses that provide management services, franchises or other models that result in any unlicensed person or entity influencing or making medical decisions are in violation of the law; as examples, businesses that control medical records, the hiring and firing of healthcare staff, decisions over coding and billing, and the approving or selection of medical equipment or drugs violate the law, and Management Service Organizations (MSOs) arranging for advertising or providing medical services, rather than only providing administrative staff and services for a physician's medical practice, are non-physicians exercising control over a physician's medical practice.
Medical Board of California — Medical Spas guidance (Management services organizations) · verified Sep 8, 2026
How other states answer this
All 7 states side by side →Related California questions
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← All California rules and changes · 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).