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.
Michigan, provision by provision
Michigan
Ownership open; professional entity optionalHolding: a non-licensee may own a standard Michigan LLC that delivers ABA. ABA is licensed, but Michigan compels the professional form only for a closed list of learned professions that omits behavior analysts, and the statute lets a non-learned profession incorporate as an ordinary corporation; the real constraint is on the money side, not on ownership.
Yes. Michigan licenses behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts under Part 182A of Article 15 of the Public Health Code, added by 2016 PA 403, with the license issued by the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs through the Board of Behavior Analysts. Because the license sits inside Article 15, the Occupations article of the Public Health Code, behavior analysts are health professionals for the entity and fee questions below, but they are licensed on their own track, not under the medical practice parts that drive Michigan's strongest ownership rules.
Conclusion. ABA is a licensed health profession in Michigan, but licensed on its own track rather than under the medical practice parts that drive the strongest ownership rules.
A professional entity is not required. Michigan compels the professional form only for a narrow, historically rooted set of professions, dentists, osteopathic physicians, physicians, surgeons, clergy, and attorneys, which its regulator treats as the only fields that may operate solely as a professional corporation or professional limited liability company. Behavior analysts are not in that set; they sit with counselors, social workers, and therapists, who use a standard LLC that a non-licensee may own. If a behavior analyst does elect a professional limited liability company, its members and managers must all be licensed, and the professional-corporation chapter of the Business Corporation Act imposes the parallel restriction on shareholders.
Conclusion. The professional form is optional for ABA; a standard LLC that a non-licensee may own governs, with the all-licensed-members rule applying only if a professional LLC is elected.
Michigan defines a professional service by general category, any personal service that requires a license, so applied behavior analysis qualifies even though behavior analysts are not named in the illustrative list. And because ABA is a service included within the Public Health Code, a professional LLC rendering it must have all licensed members and managers. This rule binds the professional form if you adopt it; it does not by itself force you into that form.
Conclusion. The all-licensed-members rule binds the professional form if adopted, but it does not force a behavior analyst into that form.
Michigan's corporate-practice rule runs through a statutory learned-profession doctrine: a corporation rendering services in a learned profession must use a professional corporation, but the term learned profession is a closed list, and behavior analysts are not on it. For professional services other than a learned profession, the statute expressly lets the practice incorporate as an ordinary corporation. So a non-licensee may own a standard LLC or corporation that employs licensed behavior analysts, and the medical learned-profession doctrine does not reach ABA. One caveat: a Michigan court left open, for physical therapists, whether a non-learned health profession might still be pushed toward the professional form, so the statute's text settles the question but it has not been tested for ABA.
Conclusion. The learned-profession doctrine reaches only its closed list and does not include behavior analysts, so nothing forces licensed ownership of an ABA practice.
Even though ownership is open, the money rules still bite. The Public Health Code makes dividing fees for referrals and accepting kickbacks an unethical business practice and a disciplinary ground, and that ground applies to every Article 15 health professional, behavior analysts included. Layered on top is Michigan's criminal health-care kickback statute, which makes soliciting, paying, or receiving a kickback in connection with services paid by a health care insurer a felony, and that statute reaches anyone, entity or individual. For Medicaid-funded ABA the federal anti-kickback statute and Stark rules apply as well.
Conclusion. The binding constraint in Michigan is on referral and kickback economics, including the criminal kickback statute, not on who may own the entity; management-fee structures must be built to those rules.
ABA is a licensed health profession in Michigan, licensed on its own track within Article 15 (axis one). Michigan compels the professional form only for a closed list of learned professions, dentists, osteopathic physicians, physicians, surgeons, clergy, and attorneys, and behavior analysts are not on it, so the professional form is optional and a standard LLC that a non-licensee may own governs (axes two, three, and four). The all-licensed-members rule binds only an elected professional LLC, and the statute lets a non-learned profession incorporate ordinarily. The real constraint sits on the money side, the Public Health Code referral-fee ground and the criminal kickback statute, rather than on ownership (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may own a standard Michigan LLC that delivers ABA through licensed behavior analysts.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Michigan is not among the 2025 wave states and no ABA-specific proposal has been identified. The verdict would change only if behavior analysts were added to Michigan's enumerated learned-profession list (MCL 450.1109), or a new corporate-practice or ownership bill were enacted.
What to watch. any bill amending the learned-profession list, which currently omits behavior analysts.
Disruption if it changes: Moderate. Adding behavior analysts to the learned-profession list would make the professional form licensee-only, but an ordinary LLC would likely still serve; a full mandate to use the professional form would force re-formation and recredentialing.
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 learned-profession and fee-splitting questions in particular often turn on interpretation rather than the words on the page. The open question of whether a non-learned health profession could still be steered toward the professional form, and the practical pull of Medicaid rendering-provider and payor credentialing rules, both mean the entity decision should be confirmed for the specific practice. 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 Michigan counsel before acting. The entity verdict is also only one layer of a Michigan practice's obligations, alongside the facility and records rules and the Michigan 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 Michigan code and qualified Michigan counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.