New York ownership & cpom for med spas

Ownership & corporate practice of medicine in New York

New York is a strict corporate-practice state. A general business corporation cannot practice medicine or employ physicians to do so; the compliant vehicle is a professional service corporation whose owners are themselves licensed.

• Only a person licensed or otherwise authorized under the Education Law’s medicine article may practice medicine or use the title “physician.”

  N.Y. Educ. Law §6522 · verified Aug 17, 2026

• A professional service corporation may be organized only by one or more individuals duly authorized to render the same professional service, and for the purpose of rendering that same service. Its certificate of incorporation must name the original shareholders, directors and officers and carry certificates from the licensing authority that each of them is authorized to practice the profession.

  N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law §1503 · verified Aug 17, 2026

• Knowingly employing unlicensed persons, or holding them out as able to practice a profession for which a license is a prerequisite, is a class E felony — the provision that reaches a lay-owned business directing clinical work.

  N.Y. Educ. Law §6512(2) · verified Aug 17, 2026

• Permitting any person to share in the fees for professional services is professional misconduct, except for a partner, employee, associate in a professional firm or corporation, professional subcontractor or consultant authorized to practice medicine, or a supervised trainee. The prohibition expressly reaches a management arrangement in which the payment for furnishing space, facilities, equipment or personnel services is a percentage of, or is otherwise dependent upon, the licensee’s income or receipts from the practice.

  N.Y. Educ. Law §6530(19) · verified Aug 17, 2026