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.
Tennessee, provision by provision
Tennessee
Ownership open; professional entity optionalHolding: a non-licensee may wholly own a standard Tennessee LLC that delivers ABA. ABA is licensed through the Applied Behavior Analyst Licensing Committee, but the professional LLC is an optional election rather than a requirement, an ordinary LLC may render behavior analysis with no licensed-ownership rule, and Tennessee's corporate-practice doctrine runs through the Board of Medical Examiners and is medicine-specific, so it does not reach ABA.
Yes. Behavior analysts are licensed under Title 63, the Professions of the Healing Arts, Chapter 11, Part 3, through the Applied Behavior Analyst Licensing Committee of the Board of Examiners in Psychology. The licensed behavior analyst is defined as an independent practitioner. Licensure alone, however, does not force the practice into a professional entity.
Conclusion. ABA is a licensed healing-arts profession in Tennessee.
Tennessee does not require a licensed practice to use a professional entity. Professional-LLC status is an optional election under the Revised LLC Act; if it is elected, the members must be qualified licensed persons, but an ordinary LLC may render behavior analysis with no licensed-ownership rule.
Conclusion. A non-licensee may own a standard Tennessee LLC that delivers ABA; the licensed-ownership rule applies only if professional-LLC status is elected.
Because professional-LLC status is elective, ABA is not confined to a professional entity. A behavior analyst may render the service through an ordinary LLC, which is the simpler default and carries no certification-of-membership or licensed-ownership condition.
Conclusion. ABA may be rendered through an ordinary LLC, so no licensed-ownership rule attaches by virtue of the entity form.
Tennessee's codified corporate-practice rule lives in the Medical Practice Act and requires that medical services be rendered under the supervision, control, and responsibility of a licensed physician, so it is medicine-specific and does not by its terms reach behavior analysis. The medical professional-entity ownership limits are likewise physician-specific.
Conclusion. The medical corporate-practice doctrine does not reach ABA, so it imposes no licensed-ownership requirement on a behavior-analysis practice.
No ABA-specific Tennessee fee-splitting statute applies; the state's fee-splitting and self-referral restrictions are oriented to the medical professions. For an ABA practice the operative remuneration constraints are federal, principally the Medicaid anti-kickback rules, together with payor contract terms and the ethics rules of the Applied Behavior Analyst Licensing Committee.
Conclusion. Management-fee economics are governed mainly by the federal anti-kickback and payor rules rather than a state ABA fee-splitting statute.
ABA is a licensed healing-arts profession in Tennessee (axis one), but professional-LLC status is an optional election, so an ordinary LLC may render the service with no licensed-ownership rule (axes two and three). The medical corporate-practice doctrine is medicine-specific and does not reach ABA (axis four), and no ABA-specific fee-splitting statute applies (axis five). Therefore a non-licensee may wholly own a standard Tennessee LLC that delivers ABA, with management-fee and referral economics governed mainly by the federal anti-kickback and payor rules.
Outlook: how this verdict could change
Likelihood of change: Low. Tennessee is not among the 2025 ownership-tightening states and no ABA-specific proposal has been identified. The verdict would change only if professional-LLC status were made mandatory for ABA rather than elective, or a corporate-practice rule were written to reach behavior analysis.
What to watch. Tennessee professional-entity activity; professional-LLC status is currently elective and the medical corporate-practice doctrine is physician-specific.
Disruption if it changes: Moderate. Making the professional LLC mandatory would force re-formation; a control-only rule would not.
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 Tennessee counsel before acting. The entity verdict is also only one layer of a Tennessee practice's obligations, alongside the facility and records rules and the Tennessee 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 Tennessee code and qualified Tennessee counsel are the authoritative sources. Neither this page nor any secondary source should be relied on in place of direct verification and professional advice.