If you're running a healthcare practice in Florida, you're dealing with a compliance puzzle that's different from most states. Florida doesn't ban corporate practice of medicine outright. Instead, it uses targeted restrictions that combine mandatory physician ownership for specific clinic types with strict fee-splitting prohibitions. This creates a unique challenge: you need to coordinate business entity filings with the Florida Division of Corporations while simultaneously managing professional licensing requirements from the Florida Board of Medicine and Department of Health.
Managing healthcare entity compliance in Florida means juggling multiple deadlines, tracking physician licenses, watching ownership rules, and hoping nothing slips through the cracks. Miss your May 1 annual report? That's a $400 penalty. Let a physician-owner's license lapse? Your entity structure is suddenly at risk of dissolution. You'll need to maintain annual corporate compliance, monitor individual practitioner license status, and ensure your ownership structures comply with Florida's single-profession ownership rules (all while running your practice).
Florida recognizes four professional entity types for your healthcare practice, all governed by specific statutory frameworks. Professional Corporations (PC) and Professional Associations (PA) operate under Florida Statutes Chapter 621, as do Professional Limited Liability Companies (PLLC). Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP) fall under Chapter 620.
Here's what they all have in common: Section 621.11 mandates that all shareholders or members must be licensed professionals authorized to render the same professional service. You cannot transfer shares to unlicensed individuals, and voting control must remain exclusively with licensed professionals. When a shareholder dies or becomes professionally disqualified, Section 621.12 requires immediate buy-out provisions.
Florida treats PCs and PAs as functionally equivalent under Section 621.03. Both are defined as corporations "organized solely and specifically for the purpose of rendering one specific kind of professional service and for no other purpose." For your purposes, there's no real difference between choosing PC versus PA designation.
You'll file Articles of Incorporation with the Florida Division of Corporations for a total formation cost of $70 ($35 filing fee plus $35 registered agent designation). Standard processing takes three to five business days. Your articles must include the specific professional service, a registered agent with a physical Florida street address (no P.O. boxes), shareholder information, and proof of professional licensure for all owners.
PLLCs operate under the same Chapter 621 framework with parallel provisions adapted for LLC structure. You'll file Articles of Organization with a filing fee of $100 plus a $25 registered agent designation fee, bringing your total initial formation cost to $125. Your entity name must include "Professional Limited Liability Company" or "PLLC."
LLPs are formed through filing a Statement of Qualification under Chapter 620. The Florida Division of Corporations sets the LLP filing fee at $965, significantly higher than other entity types, making this structure less common for healthcare practices.
Florida doesn't ban corporate practice outright. Instead, it uses targeted restrictions. The Florida Supreme Court in Visiting Nurse Association of Florida, Inc. v. Jupiter Medical Center, Inc. held that contracts violating healthcare laws, including fee-splitting and CPOM issues, are void as against public policy.
Florida's primary enforcement operates through strict fee-splitting prohibitions. Section 456.054 prohibits kickbacks, rebates, or benefits for patient referrals, while Section 817.505 establishes felony criminal penalties for patient brokering and fee-splitting.
Florida does impose mandatory physician ownership for specific clinic types. Sections 400.990-400.995 (the Health Care Clinic Act) require health care clinics to be owned by licensed physicians, dentists, chiropractors, or their immediate family members. For practices meeting these definitional requirements, non-physician corporate ownership is prohibited.
Management Services Organization arrangements are legally permissible when properly structured to avoid fee-splitting prohibitions and maintain physician clinical control. MSOs may provide comprehensive management services to your physician-owned practices, with compensation based on management fees rather than fee-splitting for medical services.
You'll need to file with the Florida Division of Corporations and coordinate with professional licensing boards. Formation costs range from $70 (PC/PA) to $125 (PLLC), with 3-5 business day processing. Discern handles these filings in under 3 minutes, automatically coordinating the Articles of Incorporation/Organization with registered agent designation and obtaining your certificate of good standing.
The following table summarizes specific requirements and costs:
If you're performing surgical procedures using moderate sedation, deep sedation, or general anesthesia, you must register as an Office Surgery facility with the Florida Board of Medicine. Certain healthcare clinics require separate licensing from the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Compliance requires continuous monitoring: ongoing deadlines for every entity, each physician-owner's license status, CME completion, and ownership restrictions.
You must file annual reports with the Florida Division of Corporations between January 1 and May 1 each calendar year. Professional Corporations pay a **$150 annual report fee**, while Professional LLCs pay $138.75. Miss the May 1 deadline and you'll face a $400 late penalty, bringing your total late filing cost to $550 for PCs or $538.75 for PLLCs.
Discern handles annual report filing and tracks your fees, eliminating the risk of $400 late penalties.
All entities must file per Florida Statute 607.1622 for professional corporations, Florida Statute 605.0212 for professional LLCs, and Florida Statute 620.9003 for limited liability partnerships. Your first annual report is due between January 1 and May 1 of the year following your entity's formation.
Failure to file results in immediate inability to maintain legal actions in Florida courts, administrative dissolution, and inability to complete mergers or conversions until you're current through December 31.
Florida doesn't impose a separate franchise tax specifically on healthcare professional entities. Instead, you're subject to Florida's general corporate income tax under Chapter 220, Florida Statutes.
According to the Florida Department of Revenue, the current corporate income tax rate is 5.5% on Florida net income for tax years through December 31, 2025. For taxable years beginning January 1, 2026 and later, the rate decreases to 4.458%. All professional corporations are always subject to this tax. Professional LLCs classified as corporations for federal tax purposes are also subject to the tax, while single-member PLLCs disregarded for federal tax purposes are generally not separately taxed (unless owned by a corporation).
Florida Statute 621.10 imposes an ongoing annual obligation: if any member, officer, shareholder, agent, or employee becomes legally disqualified or accepts employment restricting their ability to render professional services, you must sever all employment and financial interests immediately. Failure to comply is grounds for judicial dissolution.
Comprehensive compliance tracking eliminates uncertainty about filing status and deadline management.
House Bill 975 (2024) establishes enhanced background screening requirements effective July 1, 2025. According to the Florida Department of Health 2024 Legislative Updates, all healthcare practitioners must complete electronic fingerprinting and background screening, including enhanced ownership scrutiny.
Senate Bill 268 (2023) established medical debt protections and price transparency requirements. Healthcare facilities with fewer than 300 distinct shoppable healthcare services must publish standard charges on their websites, creating ongoing compliance obligations.
The Florida Board of Medicine requires you to complete 40 hours of continuing medical education every two years. No carryover of hours between renewal cycles is permitted. This CME requirement directly affects entity ownership eligibility under Florida's professional entity framework.
Mandatory CME topics include: HIV/AIDS Education (3 hours, one-time requirement prior to first license renewal only), Prevention of Medical Errors (2 hours, every biennial cycle), Domestic Violence (2 hours, approximately every six years), and Controlled Substance Prescribing (2 hours per biennial cycle for DEA-registered physicians). The remaining 34-36 hours fulfill general CME requirements.
Florida medical licenses expire biennially on January 31 of either even-numbered years (Group 1) or odd-numbered years (Group 2). Renewal applications are mailed at least 90 days before expiration, with the renewal deadline of January 31. No explicit grace period exists in official regulations.
The stakes here aren't just administrative. Florida Statutes Section 621.09 permits ownership only by individuals who are "duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized to render the same specific professional services." Failure to renew by January 31 immediately places your license in delinquent status. You're no longer "duly licensed" for purposes of Section 621.09, placing your ownership interest at immediate risk.
If the delinquent licensee doesn't complete renewal before the end of the current licensure cycle, the license becomes null and void, which triggers mandatory ownership severance requirements under Section 621.10. Your professional entity may face administrative dissolution proceedings if physician-owners lose their licenses.
Florida law categorically prohibits multi-disciplinary ownership of healthcare professional entities. Florida Statute 621.09 requires professional entities to be organized "for the sole and specific purpose of rendering one specific kind of professional service," with ownership restricted exclusively to individuals "duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized to render the same specific professional service."
This prohibition applies uniformly across all healthcare professions. The dental profession faces particularly explicit statutory enforcement under Florida Statute 466.026(1), which requires dental offices to be "owned by dentists licensed in Florida."
Prohibited combinations include:
Multi-specialty physician groups are permitted only when all owners hold the same license type (e.g., all licensed as physicians), but cross-professional entities combining different license types are expressly prohibited under Florida law.
Florida uses a hybrid approach, not a blanket CPOM ban. Unlike strict CPOM states like California or Texas, Florida doesn't enforce a general Corporate Practice of Medicine doctrine. The Florida Supreme Court in Visiting Nurse Association v. Jupiter Medical Center confirmed that contracts violating Florida healthcare laws, including fee-splitting and CPOM violations, are void as against public policy.
Hospitals and corporate entities may employ physicians when employment arrangements don't constitute fee-splitting violations under §456.054 and §817.505, and when physicians retain clinical control. Certain clinic types need physician ownership under §§400.990-400.995. Management Services Organization arrangements are common and legally permissible when properly structured.
If a physician-owner's license lapses, they're no longer "duly licensed" under §621.09. Your entity must immediately sever all employment and financial interests per §621.10. Failure to comply is grounds for judicial dissolution.
Physician licenses become delinquent immediately upon failure to renew by the January 31 deadline. If the license progresses to null and void status, complete severance of ownership interests becomes mandatory. You need systems to identify delinquency status immediately and trigger remedial action: either facilitate immediate renewal or implement buy-out provisions before ownership interests are jeopardized.
Both Professional Corporations and Professional LLCs must file annual reports between January 1 and May 1 each year. PCs pay $150, PLLCs pay $138.75. Both entity types face the same $400 late penalty for filing after May 1, creating total late costs of $550 for PCs and $538.75 for PLLCs. Both face identical consequences for non-filing: immediate inability to maintain legal actions in Florida courts, administrative dissolution, and inability to complete mergers or conversions. The first annual report is due between January 1 and May 1 of the year following formation for both entity types.
Section 621.03 defines both as entities "organized solely and specifically for the purpose of rendering one specific kind of professional service." Both have identical ownership restrictions.
Initial formation costs: PLLCs cost $125 total versus $70 for PCs. Annual report fees: PLLCs pay $138.75 annually versus $150 for PCs, creating modest savings of $11.25 per year. Default tax treatment: PCs are subject to Florida's corporate income tax at 5.5% through December 31, 2025 (decreasing to 4.458% for tax years beginning January 1, 2026). PLLCs are subject to Florida's corporate income tax only if classified as corporations for federal tax purposes; single-member PLLCs that are disregarded entities for federal tax purposes are generally not separately taxed.
Consult legal and tax advisors to determine which structure best fits your specific practice needs.
No. Florida law categorically prohibits this structure. §621.09 explicitly restricts ownership to individuals "duly licensed or otherwise legally authorized to render the same specific professional service" for which the entity was organized. Because physicians (MD/DO) and nurse practitioners (APRNs) hold different license types, they cannot hold co-ownership interests in the same professional entity.
Physicians are licensed under Chapter 458 (Medical Practice Act), while Advanced Practice Registered Nurses are licensed under Chapter 464 (Nursing). Nurse practitioners may only work under physician supervision through employment arrangements or supervising physician arrangements under §458.348, but not as co-owners.
Managing multiple entities in Florida means tracking formation filings, annual reports (January 1-May 1), physician licenses, CME requirements, and ownership restrictions, all competing with clinical operations.
Discern provides automated entity management solutions specifically designed for healthcare organizations operating in Florida's complex regulatory environment. Our platform handles professional entity formations with licensing coordination, automated annual report filing, registered agent services with physical Florida addresses, and comprehensive compliance tracking.
Ready to simplify your healthcare entity compliance? Book a demo with Discern today and see how we can reduce your administrative burden while ensuring your Florida entities stay in good standing.
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