Because the professional form is optional and no doctrine forces it, a diagnosing physician or psychologist can be employed inside the ABA entity, which also removes the cross-entity referral that would otherwise raise the Anti-Kickback Statute. Clean: employ the diagnostician in-house and ownership stays open.
Who may give the diagnosis in Ohio
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 Ohio treats psychology and medicine ownership
Ohio abolished the corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine: an ordinary corporation or limited liability company may render professional services and employ a physician or psychologist directly (Ohio Rev. Code § 4731.226). The professional-association ownership rule restricts stock to licensees only where that optional form is elected, and behavior analysis carries its own anti-referral bar.
What bringing the diagnostician in-house does
Because the professional form is optional and no doctrine forces it, a diagnosing physician or psychologist can be employed inside the ABA entity, which also removes the cross-entity referral that would otherwise raise the Anti-Kickback Statute. Clean: employ the diagnostician in-house and ownership stays open.
How to structure it in Ohio
Because the diagnostician can be employed inside an ordinary entity, the simplest structure is a bona fide W-2 employee inside your ABA entity, which also removes the cross-entity referral that would otherwise raise the federal Anti-Kickback Statute. The framework and the alternatives are set out in the diagnostician question hub.
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 Ohio code, the applicable federal safe harbor, and qualified healthcare-regulatory and tax counsel are the authoritative sources.