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.
Kentucky, provision by provision
Kentucky
Nuanced: professional corporation elective, but ownership restricted to qualified persons if usedHolding: a Kentucky ABA practice may operate as a standard LLC or corporation without restriction, since the professional service corporation form is elective. If a professional service corporation is used, ownership is restricted to "qualified persons," a defined category that does not include unrestricted lay investors.
Yes. Kentucky licenses Licensed Behavior Analysts and Licensed Assistant Behavior Analysts under KRS Chapter 319C, administered by the Kentucky Applied Behavior Analysis Licensing Board, with implementing regulations at 201 KAR Chapter 43. The Board also maintains its own ethics code, which supersedes the BACB Code where the two conflict.
Conclusion. ABA is a licensed profession in Kentucky, the gateway for the entity questions below, and because the license is itself a condition precedent to practice, it triggers Kentucky's broad professional-service definition, as the next axis shows.
A professional entity is not required; KRS 274.015 uses permissive language, one or more licensed individuals "may" incorporate a professional service corporation, and no identified Kentucky statute bars an ordinary LLC or business corporation from rendering ABA services instead. Where a professional service corporation is used, ownership is restricted to "qualified persons," and the incorporators, shareholders, at least half the directors, and the officers other than secretary and treasurer must each be a qualified person.
Conclusion. No professional entity is required for ABA in Kentucky; the professional service corporation form is available and elective, and where it is elected, ownership is restricted to qualified persons rather than open to any lay investor.
It does, and Kentucky's structure is meaningfully different from a closed enumerated list. KRS 274.005(2) defines "professional service" broadly as any personal service to the public requiring a license or other legal authorization as a condition precedent, and then lists specific professions as illustrative examples using the phrase "but not limited to." Because Kentucky's own licensing statute makes a license a condition precedent to practicing applied behavior analysis, ABA falls within the broad definition even though "behavior analyst" is not named among the listed examples.
Conclusion. ABA reaches the professional-entity statute through the broad definitional clause, not through a specific named listing, an important structural distinction from states where an unlisted profession falls outside a closed enumeration entirely.
Ownership. No separate corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine restricting ABA ownership beyond the professional service corporation statute itself was identified in this review. Because the professional corporation form is elective, an ABA-only practice organized as a standard LLC or corporation is not subject to KRS 274's qualified-person ownership restriction at all; that restriction attaches only if the professional-corporation form is affirmatively chosen.
Clinical control. Where a standard LLC or corporation is used, clinical control rests with the licensed individuals under their own supervisory and disciplinary obligations to the Board, not with an entity-level rule. Where a professional service corporation is elected, clinical control follows from the qualified-person ownership requirement directly.
Conclusion. A non-licensee may hold equity in a standard Kentucky LLC or corporation delivering ABA. A non-qualified-person, generally a lay investor with no professional licensure and no qualifying entity status, may not hold equity in a Kentucky professional service corporation providing ABA if that form is elected.
No behavior-analyst-specific state fee-splitting statute was identified in this review. Kentucky's Board maintains its own ethics code, incorporating the BACB Code of Ethics by reference and controlling where the two conflict, which reaches professional-conduct and financial-relationship standards for individual licensees. Any ABA practice billing Kentucky Medicaid, under Provider Type 63, Specialty 639, or commercial insurers remains fully subject to the federal Anti-Kickback Statute and Stark rules regardless.
Conclusion. A management agreement should be priced at fair market value to satisfy the federal anti-kickback framework and the Board's own ethics code; confirm any additional Kentucky-specific fee-splitting rule directly with the Board before finalizing a management-fee structure.
ABA is a licensed profession in Kentucky under KRS Chapter 319C (axis one), and the state's professional service corporation statute defines "professional service" broadly enough, through a condition-precedent-to-licensure test rather than a closed named list, that ABA falls within it even without being specifically enumerated (axes two and three). The professional corporation form remains elective, so a standard LLC or corporation is fully available; only an entity that affirmatively elects the professional-corporation form triggers the qualified-person ownership restriction (axis four). No identified state fee-splitting statute constrains ABA specifically, though the Board's own ethics code and the federal anti-kickback framework both apply (axis five). Therefore Kentucky's entity picture is genuinely nuanced: open by default, but meaningfully restricted the moment the professional-corporation form is chosen.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Kentucky's broad, condition-precedent-based professional-service definition has been structurally stable, and no pending legislation has been identified that would convert the elective professional-corporation form into a mandatory one for ABA.
What to watch. Any amendment to KRS 274.005's definition of "professional service" or "qualified person," and continued Board of Applied Behavior Analysis Licensing rulemaking, particularly as the December 31, 2025 end of the BACB's Verified Course Sequence system shifts coursework verification to universities.
Disruption if it changes: Low. Because the professional-corporation form is already elective and the qualified-person rule already applies whenever it is chosen, a realistic change would most likely tighten or loosen the qualified-person definition rather than restructure the underlying elective framework.
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. Kentucky's broad, illustrative professional-service definition is easy to misread as either fully open, because "behavior analyst" is not named, or fully closed, because a list is present; the actual operative test is the condition-precedent-to-licensure clause, which does reach ABA. Use this page to locate the operative provisions and to speak from the source, then confirm the current text and citations against the official code and engage qualified Kentucky counsel before acting. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The provisions quoted here change and are interpreted by agencies and courts, and the "but not limited to" structure of Kentucky's professional-service definition is a genuinely nuanced provision worth confirming with counsel for a specific fact pattern. The official Kentucky code and qualified Kentucky counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.