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.
Maryland, provision by provision
Maryland
Ownership open; LLC permitted, no PLLCHolding: a non-licensee may own a standard Maryland LLC that delivers ABA. ABA is licensed, but Maryland has no professional LLC, its corporate-practice doctrine runs only to medicine, and ABA fails the professional-service definition because an ordinary corporation may lawfully render it; the optional professional corporation never has to be used.
Yes. Maryland has licensed behavior analysts since January 2015 under the Health Occupations Article, Title 17, Subtitle 6A, with the license issued and regulated by the State Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists, the same board that regulates counselors and therapists. The 2014 act required the Board to regulate the practice of behavior analysis, and an individual may not practice it without a license. The regulator is the key fact for ownership: behavior analysts answer to the counselors-and-therapists board, not the Board of Physicians, which is why the medical corporate-practice doctrine below does not reach them.
Conclusion. ABA is a licensed profession in Maryland, regulated outside the medical board, which shapes the entity analysis below.
A professional entity is not required, and Maryland has no professional LLC at all. A practice that wants the LLC form therefore uses a standard limited liability company, which carries no licensed-ownership requirement, and that open LLC route governs ABA. The professional corporation is the only professional form, and it is optional; if it is used, it may render the professional service only through licensed individuals.
Conclusion. No professional entity is required; the standard LLC carries no licensed-ownership requirement, and the professional corporation's licensed-rendering rule applies only if that optional form is chosen.
Maryland defines a professional service narrowly: it must be both a service that only a licensed person may render and a service that an ordinary corporation may not lawfully render. ABA satisfies the first half but not the second, because Maryland's corporate-practice doctrine runs only to medicine, so an ordinary corporation may lawfully deliver ABA. The enumerated list of professional services names a psychologist but not a behavior analyst. ABA is therefore not a professional service the Professional Service Corporation Act reaches, and with no professional LLC in the state, a standard LLC governs.
Conclusion. ABA is not a professional service under the Act, so nothing forces it into a professional form, and a standard LLC with open ownership governs.
Ownership. The Maryland corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine does not restrict who may hold equity in an ABA practice. Confirmed in case law, the doctrine is built on the requirement that only a licensed individual may practice medicine, on the medical professional-corporation ownership rules, and on the Board of Physicians' enforcement, every piece of it tied to the practice of medicine. Behavior analysis is licensed by the Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists and is not the practice of medicine, so the ownership side of the doctrine does not reach a behavior analyst.
Clinical control. The clinical-control requirement of the doctrine, that a licensed physician keep independent medical judgment, is likewise medicine-specific and does not bind a profession licensed outside the Medical Practice Act, so nothing requires the owner of an ABA practice to be the clinician. Ownership is open because neither equity nor clinical control is policed for ABA.
Conclusion. The corporate-practice doctrine reaches only medicine, so a non-licensee may own a standard LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts.
Open ownership still leaves the money rules. A licensed behavior analyst is subject to the Board's grounds for discipline, and any ABA practice that bills Maryland Medicaid or commercial insurers is bound by the federal anti-kickback statute and the Stark self-referral rules, along with Maryland's own self-referral law restricting referrals to entities in which the practitioner has a financial interest. Maryland does not impose a broad professional fee-splitting statute on this profession.
Conclusion. Management-fee economics are governed by the disciplinary framework and the federal, Medicaid, and self-referral rules, not a broad Maryland fee-splitting statute.
ABA is a licensed profession in Maryland, regulated by the Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists rather than the Board of Physicians (axis one). Maryland has no professional LLC, and ABA fails the Professional Service Corporation Act's two-part definition because an ordinary corporation may lawfully render it, so no professional form is required and a standard LLC governs (axes two and three). The corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine is tied entirely to the practice of medicine and does not reach a profession licensed outside the medical board (axis four), and Maryland imposes no broad fee-splitting statute on ABA (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may own a standard Maryland LLC that delivers ABA through licensed behavior analysts.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Maryland is not among the 2025 ownership-tightening states and no ABA ownership mandate has been proposed. The verdict would change only if behavior analysts were added to a professional-entity ownership rule, or a broad corporate-practice or private-equity bill were enacted.
What to watch. Maryland healthcare-transaction activity; no ABA-specific ownership proposal has been identified.
Disruption if it changes: Low. A realistic change would add reporting or clinical-control terms rather than a new entity form.
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. Maryland's corporate-practice doctrine in particular is largely judge-made and turns on interpretation, and the behavior analyst provisions sit in Subtitle 6A of the counselors-and-therapists title, so the exact section and text should be confirmed against the official code. Use this page to locate the operative provisions and to speak from the source, then engage qualified Maryland counsel before acting. The entity verdict is also only one layer of a Maryland practice's obligations, alongside the facility and records rules and the Maryland 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, and Maryland's corporate-practice doctrine rests in part on case law. The official Maryland code and qualified Maryland counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.