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.
Montana, provision by provision
Montana
Ownership openHolding: a non-licensee may own an ordinary Montana LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts. No professional entity is required; the professional-corporation form is available but optional; behavior analysts are licensed through the Board of Psychologists, so the corporate-practice question routes through psychology rather than medicine, and neither reaches ABA; and management-fee economics are constrained by the Medicaid fraud statute, which reaches any provider billing the program.
This matters because the entire professional-entity analysis applies only to a licensed profession. Montana licenses behavior analysts and assistant behavior analysts under MCA Title 37, Chapter 17, and places them under the Board of Psychologists rather than a standalone board or the medical board. That placement is the fact that controls the corporate-practice analysis in axis four, because the doctrine that could reach ABA would have to come through psychology, which does not carry one, rather than medicine.
Montana's professional entities live in the professional-corporation provisions of Title 35. The form is permissive rather than compulsory: it supplies an optional vehicle that a licensed practitioner may elect, and it does not compel a licensed profession into a professional entity or bar an ordinary LLC from employing licensed practitioners.
The scope link decides whether the professional-entity rule actually reaches ABA. Montana's professional-corporation act defines the service by reference to a required license, and behavior analysts are licensed under Chapter 17, so ABA is a professional service capable of using the elective form. But because the form is optional and no corporate-practice rule compels it, the scope link does not force a professional entity on an ABA practice; it only makes the form available.
The ownership conclusion rests on the absence of any rule forcing licensed ownership, and Montana's licensing structure makes that absence unusually clean. The only statute that would confine ownership to licensees is the professional-corporation act, and that form is elective, an ABA practice that never elects it is never reached. The corporate-practice doctrine that could otherwise force licensed ownership is a doctrine of the practice of medicine under the Medical Practice Act, enforced by the Board of Medical Examiners, and it reaches physicians. Montana licenses behavior analysts not through a medical board or a standalone board but through the Board of Psychologists, so the only doctrine that could reach the profession would have to come through psychology, and Montana's psychology framework carries no corporate-practice bar. The result is that neither the entity statute nor any professional doctrine reaches an ABA practice, and a non-licensee may own an ordinary Montana LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts.
Open ownership does not mean open economics. Montana's profession-specific fee-splitting bars sit in the medical discipline provisions and reach physicians, so the constraint on an ABA practice comes from the Medicaid fraud statute and the federal anti-kickback rule. The Montana statute is not physician-specific: it makes it an offense to solicit, accept, offer, or provide remuneration, including a kickback, bribe, or rebate, for furnishing services reimbursable under the medical assistance program or for recommending the purchasing, leasing, or ordering of such services, and it reaches an ABA practice the moment it bills Medicaid. The federal anti-kickback statute reaches the same practice through Medicaid and Medicare. Together they mean ownership can sit with a non-licensee while the management fee cannot be structured freely. The practical consequence is the one common to every open-ownership state: the management fee must be fixed at fair market value for services actually rendered, not set as a share of clinical revenue or tied to patient volume, because a percentage-of-revenue fee is exactly the arrangement the Medicaid fraud statute and the federal rule police.
Reading the five together: ABA is a licensed profession in Montana under the Board of Psychologists (axis one), the professional-corporation form is elective (axis two), the scope definition makes the form available but not compulsory (axis three), the corporate-practice doctrine reaches medicine only and psychology carries none reaching ABA (axis four), and the only live constraint is the Medicaid fraud and federal anti-kickback rules, which police management-fee economics rather than ownership (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may own an ordinary Montana LLC that employs licensed behavior analysts, with the professional-corporation form available but optional.
This entity question sits alongside the other state analyses in the entity decision pillar and the broader ABA compliance knowledge base: how Montana handles professional entity formation and management and ownership structures, its licensing regime, the facility and records rules, and its Medicaid enrollment framework each carry part of the picture.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Montana licenses behavior analysts through the Board of Psychologists and has not moved to restrict ABA ownership or extend a corporate-practice doctrine to the behavioral professions.
What to watch. Any amendment to Chapter 17 or the psychology or medical practice acts that would extend corporate-practice or ownership restrictions to behavior analysts; none currently does.
Disruption if it changes: Low. A realistic change would add clinical-control or reporting terms rather than compel 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, 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 Montana counsel before acting. Nothing here is legal, tax, or financial advice.
The provisions quoted here change and are interpreted by agencies and courts. The official Montana code and qualified Montana counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.