Sec. 301.012. JOINT PRACTICE BY CERTAIN PROFESSIONALS. (a) Persons licensed as doctors of medicine and persons licensed as doctors of osteopathy by the Texas Medical Board, persons licensed as podiatrists by the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, and persons licensed as chiropractors by the Texas Board of Chiropractic Examiners may jointly form and own a professional association or a professional limited liability company to perform professional services that fall within the scope of practice of those practitioners.

(a-1) Persons licensed as physicians under Subtitle B, Title 3, Occupations Code, and persons licensed as physician assistants under Chapter 204, Occupations Code, may form and own a professional association or a professional limited liability company to perform professional services that fall within the scope of practice of those practitioners.

(a-2) A physician assistant may not be an officer in the professional association or limited liability company.

(a-3) A physician assistant may not contract with or employ a physician to be a supervising physician of the physician assistant or of any physician in the professional association or limited liability company.

(a-4) The authority of each practitioner is limited by the scope of practice of the respective practitioner. An organizer of the entity must be a physician and ensure that a physician or physicians control and manage the entity.

(a-5) Nothing in this section may be construed to allow the practice of medicine by someone not licensed as a physician under Subtitle B, Title 3, Occupations Code, or to allow a person not licensed as a physician to direct the activities of a physician in the practice of medicine.

(a-6) A physician assistant or combination of physician assistants may have only a minority ownership interest in an entity created under this section. The ownership interest of an individual physician assistant may not equal or exceed the ownership interest of any individual physician owner. A physician assistant or combination of physician assistants may not interfere with the practice of medicine by a physician owner or the supervision of physician assistants by a physician owner.

(a-7) The Texas Medical Board and the Texas Physician Assistant Board continue to exercise regulatory authority over their respective license holders according to applicable law. To the extent of a conflict between Subtitle B, Title 3, Occupations Code, and Chapter 204, Occupations Code, or any rules adopted under those statutes, Subtitle B, Title 3, or a rule adopted under that subtitle controls.

(b) Professionals, other than physicians, engaged in related mental health fields such as psychology, clinical social work, licensed professional counseling, and licensed marriage and family therapy may form a professional entity that is jointly owned by those practitioners to perform professional services that fall within the scope of practice of those practitioners.

(c) Persons licensed as doctors of medicine and persons licensed as doctors of osteopathy by the Texas State Board of Medical Examiners and persons licensed as optometrists or therapeutic optometrists by the Texas Optometry Board may, subject to the provisions regulating those professionals, jointly form and own a professional association or a professional limited liability company to perform professional services that fall within the scope of practice of those practitioners.

(d) Only a physician, optometrist, or therapeutic optometrist may have an ownership interest in a professional association or professional limited liability company formed under Subsection (c).

(e) An entity formed under Subsection (c) is not prohibited from making one or more payments to an owner's estate following the owner's death under an agreement with the owner or as otherwise authorized or required by law.

(f) When doctors of medicine, osteopathy, podiatry, and chiropractic, or doctors of medicine, osteopathy, and optometry or therapeutic optometry, or mental health professionals form a professional entity as provided by Subsections (a), (b), and (c), the authority of each of the practitioners is limited by the scope of practice of the respective practitioners and none can exercise control over the other's clinical authority granted by their respective licenses, either through agreements, bylaws, directives, financial incentives, or other arrangements that would assert control over treatment decisions made by the practitioner.

(g) The state agencies exercising regulatory control over professions to which this section applies continue to exercise regulatory authority over their respective licenses.

Acts 2003, 78th Leg., ch. 182, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 2006.

Amended by:

Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 782 (H.B. 2098), Sec. 3, eff. June 17, 2011.

Acts 2017, 85th Leg., R.S., Ch. 388 (S.B. 679), Sec. 3, eff. June 1, 2017.

Acts 2019, 86th Leg., R.S., Ch. 467 (H.B. 4170), Sec. 19.003, eff. September 1, 2019.