The five rows below carry the operative statutory language verbatim, each quote pulled from the official code. This page is one state from the full state-by-state reference. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The five-part test in brief
Whether an ABA practice needs a professional entity is a stack of five questions. The licensing act is the gateway, because an unlicensed profession is generally not a professional service and an ordinary entity governs. The professional-entity statute supplies the form and the ownership rule that applies if that form is used. The scope definition decides whether ABA is actually inside that statute. The corporate-practice doctrine, a separate body of law that often lives in the medical practice act or case law rather than the entity statute, is usually what forces licensed ownership and pushes outside capital into a management company. And the fee-splitting and anti-remuneration rules constrain management-fee economics even where ownership is open. The rows below run those five against this state's actual code, quoting the operative language so the position rests on the statute.
Colorado, provision by provision
Colorado
Ownership open; ABA now licensedHolding: a non-licensee may own a standard Colorado LLC that delivers ABA. Colorado enacted behavior-analyst licensure in 2026 (the Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act, license required July 1, 2028), but the act licenses individuals without requiring a professional entity or attaching an ownership rule, and the corporate-practice doctrine reaches only the practice of medicine. Ownership stays open; the change is at the gateway, not the ownership line.
Yes, as of 2026. Colorado enacted the Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act as HB26-1425, signed June 2, 2026, adding article 247 to title 12 and creating the Colorado Behavior Analyst Licensing Board, a five-member board (three licensed behavior analysts, one licensed assistant behavior analyst, and one public member) in the Division of Professions and Occupations. The board licenses behavior analysts under section 12-247-107 and assistant behavior analysts under section 12-247-108, in each case built on a current certification from a certifying entity, which the act defines to include the Behavior Analyst Certification Board and the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis Credentialing Board. The license requirement is phased: the practice-license sections take effect July 1, 2028, and from that date unlicensed practice is prohibited and is a class 2 misdemeanor. Facility-level clinic licensing is a separate track handled by the Department of Human Services, and Medicaid reimbursement of behavior technicians is handled by the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing.
Conclusion. ABA is now a licensed profession in Colorado, the gateway for the entity questions below, but the license attaches to the individual and carries no professional-entity or ownership rule with it.
Even now that ABA is licensed, no professional entity is required. The Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act regulates who may practice, not what form the practice takes; it contains no requirement that ABA be delivered through a professional corporation or professional LLC and no rule restricting who may own the entity. A standard limited liability company under the Colorado Limited Liability Company Act may be used and may be owned by anyone, including a non-licensee. Colorado's professional-service-corporation form exists for licensed professions and, with ABA now licensed, becomes available to a behavior analyst who wants it, but availability is not a requirement and the form carries no non-licensee-ownership bar of its own for ABA.
Conclusion. No professional entity is required, and a standard LLC delivering ABA may be owned by a non-licensee.
Now that ABA is a licensed service, Colorado's professional-entity forms become available to a behavior analyst who elects to use one, so the scope link no longer fails at the gateway. But availability is the operative word. The Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act does not push ABA into a mandatory professional form and attaches no licensed-ownership condition, so nothing in the newly engaged framework restricts who may own an ABA practice. The optional professional form is now reachable; the ownership rule that would matter is simply not there.
Conclusion. The professional-entity form is now available to licensed ABA but is optional, and no ownership restriction rides along with it.
Ownership. No ownership-by-law rule restricts who may hold equity in an ABA practice. Colorado's corporate-practice doctrine is expressly limited to the practice of medicine and reaches physicians licensed by the medical board, and Colorado courts have treated it as statutorily altered but not abolished. ABA is now its own licensed profession under a separate act, and that act imposes no corporate-practice bar and no ownership condition of its own. To the contrary, the clinic-licensing statute expressly contemplates that the governing body of an ABA clinic, the body in which ultimate authority and legal responsibility is vested, may be a corporation. Because ABA is not the practice of medicine, and because its own act polices who may practice rather than who may own, none of this constrains who may own an ABA practice.
Clinical control. No rule requires a licensed professional to retain clinical control of an ABA practice or bars a lay owner from directing the business. The medical doctrine that polices clinical control reaches only physicians, and the Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act assigns clinical duties, treatment planning and supervision, to the licensed behavior analyst without vesting ownership or business control in a licensee. Ownership is open because neither equity nor clinical control is policed for ABA.
Conclusion. Neither the medical corporate-practice doctrine nor the ABA act constrains ownership of an ABA practice; a non-licensee may own it outright.
With ABA now licensed, the natural question is whether its practice act adds a fee-splitting or anti-remuneration rule. It does not. The Applied Behavior Analysis Practice Act contains no fee-splitting or self-referral provision, and its only remuneration clause is a narrow carve-out barring a school employee from taking outside pay for ABA, not a rule governing practice revenue. Colorado's fee-splitting and anti-kickback provisions for clinicians sit within the Medical Practice Act and are medicine-specific, so there is still no ABA-specific state fee-splitting statute to apply. For an ABA practice the operative remuneration constraints are federal, principally the Medicaid anti-kickback rules, together with payor contract terms.
Conclusion. Management-fee economics are governed by the federal anti-kickback and payor rules, not a Colorado fee-splitting statute.
Colorado licensed behavior analysts in 2026, effective July 1, 2028 (axis one), but the license attaches to the individual: no professional entity is required, and a standard LLC may be owned by anyone (axes two and three). The corporate-practice doctrine is limited by its terms to the practice of medicine and does not reach ABA, the ABA act imposes no ownership rule, and the clinic-licensing statute expressly lets a corporation be an ABA clinic's governing body (axis four). There is no ABA-specific state fee-splitting statute, leaving management-fee limits to the federal and payor rules (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may own an ABA practice in Colorado outright. The gateway has closed, ABA is now a licensed practice, but because the license carries no ownership rule, the ownership answer is unchanged.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Elevated. Colorado has just moved from an unregulated profession to a licensed one, and a newly enacted act with a phase-in and two rulemaking tracks is exactly where quiet changes appear. The ownership verdict itself is stable on the enacted text, which contains no ownership rule, but the surrounding regime is still being built out, so this page warrants a closer watch than a settled state.
What to watch. Colorado Behavior Analyst Licensing Board rulemaking as the July 1, 2028 practice-license date approaches; the Department of Human Services clinic-licensing standards, which must be published by July 1, 2029 (with the day-treatment transition running application by August 1, 2026 and licensure before August 1, 2027) and whose enumerated subjects reach character, safety, and financial ability but not ownership composition; and any follow-on amendment that would attach an ownership or corporate-practice rule to the license, none of which is currently proposed.
Disruption if it changes: Moderate. The license as enacted does not require re-formation of an existing LLC. A future amendment attaching an ownership rule, or a broad corporate-practice or private-equity bill reaching behavioral health, could require a new entity form; short of that, adjustments would be structural or to management agreements rather than a re-formation.
Where professional advice is essential, not optional
Verbatim statutory text is a starting point, not a conclusion. Statutes are amended, agencies issue rules that fill them in, and courts interpret them, so the corporate-practice and fee-splitting questions in particular often turn on interpretation rather than the words on the page. Use this page to locate the operative provisions and to speak from the source, then confirm the current text against the official code and engage qualified Colorado counsel before acting. The entity verdict is also only one layer of a Colorado practice's obligations, alongside the facility and records rules, newly consequential as the state builds out ABA-clinic licensing, and the Colorado Medicaid enrollment that discloses the entity and its owners. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The provisions quoted here change and are interpreted by agencies and courts. The official Colorado code and qualified Colorado counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.