What happens if a med spa in Tennessee operates without the right license?
Enforcement · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
Willfully and knowingly practicing medicine without a license draws a Type A civil penalty of $500 to $1,000; separately, operating without current med spa registration is unprofessional conduct by the medical director and any supervising physician there.
Tennessee names unlicensed practice as the example of its most serious civil penalty, and puts a number on it. a Type A civil penalty is for a willful and knowing violation “to such an extent that there is, or is likely to be an imminent, substantial threat to the health, safety and welfare of an individual client or the public”, and the rule then says so in terms: “willfully and knowingly practicing medicine without a license, certification or other authorization from the Board is one of the violations of the Medical Practice Act for which a Type A civil penalty is assessable.” “Type A Civil Penalties shall be assessed in the amount of not less than $500 or more than $1,000.” The schedule is set under T.C.A. § 63-1-134, and this claim carries the rule rather than the statute.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.12(4) (Civil penalties — schedule and amounts) · verified Sep 8, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
Related Tennessee rules
The advertising grounds are enforced through T.C.A. § 63-6-214(b)(9), the statutory disciplinary provision the rules cross-reference by number. Tennessee does not create a separate advertising penalty; it routes the conduct into the existing license-discipline statute.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.13(4) · verified Sep 2, 2026
Failure to comply with the medical certification requirements for death certificates subjects a physician to disciplinary action under T.C.A. § 63-6-214(b)(1) — an illustration of the pattern: the rules name the conduct and point at the statute that punishes it.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0880-02-.14(13) · verified Sep 2, 2026
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Related Tennessee questions
- Can Tennessee shut down a med spa that is operating unlawfully?
- What can a practitioner in Tennessee be disciplined for?
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← All Tennessee 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).