The Diagnostician Question · Michigan · 2026

The diagnostician question in Michigan

Who can give the autism diagnosis in Michigan, and what happens to your ownership if you bring that diagnostician in-house, with the operative statute quoted verbatim. This page carries what is specific to Michigan; the framework, the structure, and the 17-state comparison are in the diagnostician question hub.

Important · This is not legal advice

This page is general educational information about corporate-practice, professional-entity, and anti-kickback law as it affects applied behavior analysis practices in Michigan. It is not legal, tax, or business advice, it creates no attorney-client relationship, and it is not produced by an attorney. Confirm the verbatim text against the current official code and engage qualified healthcare-regulatory and tax counsel before acting.

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Michigan · classification
Flip on in-house, trends split

Because ABA is an ordinary LLC and psychology requires a licensee-owned entity, the two cannot share one entity. Flip, trending split: diagnosis sits in its own licensee-owned entity.

Who may give the diagnosis in Michigan

The medical-necessity diagnosis is made by a licensed physician or a licensed psychologist. A BCBA may not diagnose ASD, so the diagnostician you would bring in-house is a psychologist or a physician, and both are professions the state may treat differently from behavior analysis.

How Michigan treats psychology and medicine ownership

Michigan's learned-professions doctrine bars an ordinary corporation from employing a licensed professional, and a professional limited liability company that renders a service within the public health code must have every member and manager licensed to render that same service. Psychology is within the public health code, so a psychology entity must be psychologist-owned.

Verbatim, MCL § 450.4904(2)Except as provided in subsection (3) or (4), if a professional limited liability company renders a professional service that is included within the public health code, 1978 PA 368, MCL 333.1101 to 333.25211, then all members and managers of the company must be licensed or legally authorized in this state to render the same professional service.
Verbatim, MCL § 450.1109(1) (the closed list)Services in a learned profession means services provided to the public by a dentist, an osteopathic physician, a physician, a surgeon, a doctor of divinity or other clergy, or an attorney-at-law.

What bringing the diagnostician in-house does

Because ABA is an ordinary LLC and psychology requires a licensee-owned entity, the two cannot share one entity. Flip, trending split: diagnosis sits in its own licensee-owned entity.

How to structure it in Michigan

Keep the ABA entity ABA-only and non-licensee owned, and put the diagnosis in a separate licensee-owned entity connected through a management company on fair-market-value, not volume-based, terms so the referral survives the federal Anti-Kickback Statute; or rely on an outside referral with no remuneration flowing for the referral. If the diagnostician is a physician and the payer is Medicaid, the federal physician self-referral rules add a layer that a psychologist does not trigger. The full three-entity structure is set out in the diagnostician question hub.

Read this alongside

Confirm current requirements directly

The corporate-practice, professional-entity, and anti-kickback rules summarized here are amended and reinterpreted, and verbatim text is a starting point rather than a conclusion. The official Michigan code, the applicable federal safe harbor, and qualified healthcare-regulatory and tax counsel are the authoritative sources.

Last updated July 2026. The diagnosis-authority and diagnostician-ownership question for ABA practices in Michigan, with the operative provision quoted verbatim from the official code. Statutes and safe harbors change and are interpreted by agencies and courts. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice. Confirm against the official code and consult qualified counsel before structuring a diagnosis-and-treatment arrangement.

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