An ordinary corporation may employ the diagnosing psychologist or physician and render the diagnosis through them, so ownership stays open. Only an implicit medicine doctrine that polices clinical control rather than ownership survives. Clean: ownership stays open.
Who may give the diagnosis in Virginia
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 Virginia treats psychology and medicine ownership
Virginia lets an ordinary stock or nonstock corporation render professional services, and a separate provision lets such an entity render a licensed profession through the licensed individual (Va. Code § 54.1-111(F)). The healing arts, which include psychology and medicine, are professional services, and the professional forms are optional.
What bringing the diagnostician in-house does
An ordinary corporation may employ the diagnosing psychologist or physician and render the diagnosis through them, so ownership stays open. Only an implicit medicine doctrine that polices clinical control rather than ownership survives. Clean: ownership stays open.
How to structure it in Virginia
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 Virginia code, the applicable federal safe harbor, and qualified healthcare-regulatory and tax counsel are the authoritative sources.