Managing a Georgia healthcare practice means juggling compliance requirements across multiple agencies, where missing a single deadline can cost you hundreds in reinstatement fees. You're navigating professional entity ownership restrictions, biennial licensing requirements, and dual filing obligations with both the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Composite Medical Board. While Georgia doesn't enforce a standalone Corporate Practice of Medicine (CPOM) doctrine, the state achieves similar outcomes through strict ownership requirements under Title 14, Chapter 7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (O.C.G.A.).
When you're forming a medical practice in Georgia, you'll choose from four entity types: Professional Corporations (PCs), Professional Limited Liability Companies (PLLCs), Professional Associations (PAs), and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). Formation requires initial approval from the Georgia Composite Medical Board, followed by filing with the Georgia Secretary of State Corporations Division. You'll pay a $110 filing fee ($100 base plus $10 service charge), and annual registration obligations of $60 are due between January 1 and April 1 each year.
You can select from four entity structures codified in Title 14 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, each offering distinct liability protection and governance frameworks.
O.C.G.A. § 14-7-3 authorizes you to practice as a professional corporation by filing articles of incorporation stating your purpose is to practice the named profession. If you choose this structure, you'll get traditional corporate governance with limited liability protection while maintaining professional oversight.
Ownership Requirements: Here's the critical restriction you need to understand: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 requires all shareholders, officers, and directors to be licensed physicians. This creates an absolute barrier to non-physician equity ownership. O.C.G.A. § 14-7-5 prohibits transfer of shares to non-licensed individuals, ensuring professional control remains with licensed practitioners throughout your entity's existence.
O.C.G.A. § 14-11-1107(f) permits you to provide professional services through limited liability companies. PLLCs offer member-managed or manager-managed structures with pass-through taxation, providing flexibility not available in traditional PCs. You must maintain active professional licensure with relevant Georgia licensing boards.
O.C.G.A. § 14-10-3 authorizes two or more duly licensed professionals to form a professional association for carrying on a profession. The statute prohibits associations from rendering more than one type of professional service.
O.C.G.A. §§ 14-8-62 through 14-8-64 authorize you to elect limited liability partnership status by recording a limited liability partnership election with the clerk of superior court in any county where you maintain an office. LLPs provide liability protection for partners not personally involved in specific malpractice incidents while maintaining partnership tax treatment and operational flexibility.
Georgia doesn't enforce a standalone CPOM doctrine. The Georgia Composite Medical Board confirmed in August 2011 that the CPOM prohibition was never codified after the 1982 repeal of O.C.G.A. § 43-34-37, and the Board has never disciplined a licensee for CPOM violations.
How Georgia Restricts Corporate Practice: Georgia restricts corporate practice through: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 and O.C.G.A. § 14-7-5 prohibiting non-physician equity ownership in medical professional corporations; O.C.G.A. § 33-20-18 stating health care corporations "shall not practice medicine"; and O.C.G.A. § 26-5-80 prohibiting fee-splitting and kickbacks related to patient referrals.
What You Can Do: Recent Georgia case law confirms permissible employment arrangements. In American Anesthesiology of Georgia, LLC v. Northside Hospital, Inc. (2021), the Georgia Court of Appeals upheld hospital employment arrangements without any CPOM challenge.
When you're forming a professional entity in Georgia, you must coordinate filings with both the Georgia Secretary of State and the Georgia Composite Medical Board in a specific sequence. You'll need Georgia Composite Medical Board professional licensing and pre-approval before filing formation documents with the Georgia Secretary of State.
Here's what you need to do:
According to Georgia Secretary of State Rule 590-7-2, professional entity names must include appropriate entity-type designators. Professional Corporations must include "Professional Corporation" or "P.C." Professional Limited Liability Companies must include "Professional Limited Liability Company" or "P.L.L.C."
You'll face three main ongoing obligations: annual registration with the Secretary of State ($60, due January 1-April 1), net worth tax filing with the Department of Revenue (if applicable, maximum $5,000), and biennial physician license renewal with the Georgia Composite Medical Board ($230, plus 40 hours CME).
According to the Georgia Secretary of State Annual Registration Form, you must file annual registration between January 1 and April 1 each year.
Your Filing Deadlines:
Fees: You'll pay $60 ($50 base fee + $10 service charge) for both PCs and PLLCs.
Non-Compliance Consequences: If you fail to file by April 1, you'll receive a deficiency notice from the Secretary of State with 30 days to correct the deficiency. If the deficiency remains uncorrected after the full 60-day period, your filing is deemed abandoned and your entity faces administrative dissolution. Reinstatement requires payment of $260, representing a 333% cost increase over standard fees.
If your healthcare professional entity is taxed as a corporation, you're subject to annual net worth tax obligations administered by the Georgia Department of Revenue. According to the Net Worth Tax for Corporations - FAQ, the net worth tax functions as Georgia's state franchise tax and applies to Professional Corporations (PCs) and Professional Limited Liability Companies (PLLCs) filing as corporations.
Tax Applicability:
Tax Rates: Corporations with net worth of $100,000 or less aren't subject to tax but must file a return. Tax is graduated based on net worth reported on the prior year's ending balance sheet, with a maximum net worth tax of $5,000 for net worth exceeding $22 million.
Filing Deadlines:
If you own a professional corporation in Georgia, you must maintain an active medical license—it's a legal prerequisite under O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4. This licensing compliance directly impacts your entity ownership qualification, creating critical coordination requirements between your personal licensure and corporate governance.
The Georgia Composite Medical Board operates a fully paperless licensing system through the Board's eGov portal. Initial licensing requires medical school transcripts, examination scores, training certificates, and a $500 non-refundable fee.
You must complete 40 hours of Board-approved CME every two years for biennial license renewal, with mandatory specialized training requirements. According to the Georgia Composite Medical Board's official CME guidance and Georgia Administrative Code Chapter 360-15, these hours must be from Board-approved categories.
Specialized CME Requirements:
You must also complete the following specialized training requirements per Georgia Administrative Code Chapter 360-15:
These specialized requirements count toward your base 40-hour total rather than in addition to it. You must maintain CME records for 5 years per official CME guidance.
Georgia Code § 43-34-287 establishes biennial (two-year) license renewal requirements with specific deadlines tied to your birthday, requiring renewal by the last day of the month in which your birthday occurs.
Renewal Deadline: Last day of the month in which your birthday occurs
Grace Period: Three months after expiration with late fees of $455; automatic license revocation occurs only if you don't complete renewal within this three-month grace period
Fee Structure:
The connection between your physician licensing status and ownership eligibility creates operational compliance risks requiring proactive management. O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 requires that all shareholders in professional corporations maintain active, valid licensure for ownership eligibility. If your professional license expires, is suspended, or is revoked, you immediately lose the legal qualification to own shares in the professional corporation.
Critical Compliance Connection: If you fail to renew your license by the birthday deadline, you enter a three-month late renewal period during which your license is technically expired. If not renewed within three months, your license is automatically revoked, immediately triggering ownership disqualification under O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 for professional corporations and PLLCs.
O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 limits multi-discipline ownership of professional corporations to specifically enumerated professions: ophthalmologists, podiatrists, and chiropractors. This statute doesn't include nurse practitioners or physician assistants in the enumerated list of professionals authorized for multi-discipline ownership arrangements.
If you're exploring complex ownership structures involving physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants, you should know that Georgia law doesn't currently permit such arrangements.
Georgia doesn't enforce a standalone Corporate Practice of Medicine doctrine, as confirmed in 2011 Board minutes.
However, Georgia achieves similar outcomes through ownership restrictions. O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 requires 100% physician ownership of medical professional corporations, preventing non-physician equity ownership.
O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 requires that all shareholders, officers, and directors in professional corporations maintain active licensure. When your physician license expires, lapses, or is revoked, you immediately lose legal qualification to own shares in the professional corporation.
Georgia Code § 43-34-287 provides a three-month grace period following license expiration during which you may complete late renewal by paying $455 (compared to $230 standard renewal). After this three-month period, your license is automatically revoked, triggering immediate ownership disqualification under O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4. This creates operational compliance risk requiring proactive license monitoring, particularly for physician-owners whose license renewal dates fall near annual registration deadlines.
You'll face two primary annual filing obligations: Secretary of State annual registration and Georgia Department of Revenue net worth tax.
Annual Registration with Secretary of State: Due January 1 through April 1 each year; $60 for both PCs and PLLCs. Professional corporations must file their first annual registration within 90 days of incorporation, while PLLCs file their first registration in the January-April window following formation.
Net Worth Tax with Department of Revenue: Professional corporations and PLLCs filing as corporations must file annual net worth tax returns. C corporations file by the 15th day of the fourth month following the beginning of the tax year; S corporations file by the 15th day of the third month. The net worth tax is graduated based on prior year net worth, with a maximum tax of $5,000 for net worth exceeding $22 million. Entities with net worth of $100,000 or less aren't subject to tax but must still file returns.
Both PCs and PLLCs offer liability protection and require 100% ownership by licensed healthcare professionals, but differ in governance structure, tax treatment, and operational flexibility.
Governance: O.C.G.A. § 14-7-4 requires that all PC shareholders, officers, and directors be licensed physicians, mandating traditional corporate governance with board oversight. PLLCs under O.C.G.A. § 14-11-1107(f) permit professional services through limited liability companies and may adopt either member-managed or manager-managed governance structures.
Tax Treatment: PCs are taxed as corporations unless electing S corporation status, potentially creating double taxation on distributions. PLLCs default to partnership taxation (for multi-member entities) or disregarded entity status (for single-member entities), providing pass-through taxation without corporate-level tax. PLLCs may elect corporate taxation if beneficial. Professional corporations are subject to Georgia's net worth tax, which is graduated based on net worth with a maximum net worth tax of $5,000 for net worth exceeding $22 million.
Operational Flexibility: PLLCs provide greater flexibility in profit distribution, allowing distributions based on operating agreements rather than stock ownership percentages. PCs must distribute dividends proportionate to share ownership.
Annual Compliance: Both entity types face identical annual registration requirements ($60 annually, due January 1 through April 1) and net worth tax obligations if taxed as corporations.
Managing compliance across Georgia Secretary of State annual registrations, Department of Revenue net worth tax filings, and Georgia Composite Medical Board licensing requirements creates the kind of administrative burden that keeps compliance officers up at night. If you're managing 50+ registrations manually, you're likely dealing with hundreds of separate vendor invoices, duplicate annual reports, and constant deadline tracking across multiple state portals.
Discern's automated platform handles professional entity formations in as fast as 3 minutes, consolidates all compliance deadlines into a single dashboard, and eliminates the burden of managing hundreds of separate vendor invoices across multiple state portals—ensuring your Georgia healthcare entities maintain continuous good standing while you focus on patient care instead of paperwork.
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 Georgia entities stay in good standing.
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