Selling a Medical Practice in California - A Legal Guide for Physician Sellers Selling a medical practice is one of the most consequential transactions in a physician's career, and in California it unfolds against a distinctive regulatory backdrop. This guide covers preparing the practice for sale, the legal rules that govern the transaction, the mistakes that most often cost sellers, and a stage-by-stage roadmap to closing.
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Buying a Medical Practice: Part 4
Part 4 of 4 — Implementation Putting the framework, rules, and lessons into a working checklist. The final step is execution. This closing post pulls the framework (Part 1), the legal rules (Part 2), and the common mistakes (Part 3) into a sequential checklist you can use to move a medical prac...
Buying a Medical Practice: Part 3
Part 3 of 4 — The Common Mistakes Where medical practice acquisitions go wrong — and how to avoid it. Knowing the framework and the rules is only useful if you can spot where deals actually break down. The mistakes below recur across medical practice acquisitions. Ignoring Corporate Pract...
Buying a Medical Practice: Part 2
Part 2 of 4 — The Legal Rules The regulatory constraints that shape every medical practice deal. With the framework in place, the next step is understanding the legal rules that govern who can buy a California medical practice and how. These rules are not optional deal points — they are constra...
Buying a Medical Practice: Part One
Buying a medical practice is one of the most significant transactions a physician will undertake, and it sits at the intersection of business and heavily regulated healthcare law. This four-part series builds a complete picture in sequence of what you'll need to know going in.
Buying a Dental Practice: A Five-Part Checklist Series - Part 5
Protecting the value you just paid for. Closing is not the finish line. A smooth transition protects the goodwill and patient relationships you just bought, and several post-closing steps are time-sensitive. This final post covers needs to be handled once the deal is done.
Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts in California: What High-Liability Professionals Should Know Before Choosing "Irrevocable"
Revocable vs. Irrevocable Trusts in California: What High‑Liability Professionals Should Know Before Choosing “Irrevocable” An estate‑planning overview for physicians, surgeons, and other professionals who want to protect their assets from future lawsuits and leave everything to their children. ...
Buying a Dental Practice: A Five-Part Checklist Series - Part 4
PART 4 - The Purchase Agreement and Closing Protections Turn your diligence findings into enforceable protection. The definitive purchase agreement is where everything you learned in diligence becomes binding — or doesn't. This post covers the key terms that protect you, both at closing and a...
Buying a Dental Practice: A Five-Part Checklist Series - Part 3
PART 3 OF 5 Assets, Leases, and Contracts A dental practice is a bundle of tangible and intangible assets tied together by contracts. This post looks at what actually transfers in the sale and the terms that come with it. A single overlooked item — like a short remaining lease — can undermine a...
Buying a Dental Practice: A Five-Part Checklist Series - Part 2
PART 2 OF 5 Due Diligence Confirm that what you are buying matches what was represented. Due diligence is where a dental practice acquisition is won or lost. It is your opportunity to verify the seller's representations and uncover problems before they become yours. Build a document request li...
Buying a Dental Practice: A Five-Part Checklist Series - Part 1
Buying a dental practice is one of the largest professional investments a dentist will make, and the deal involves far more than the price. This series walks through the major stages of a California dental practice acquisition — from structure and diligence to the purchase agreement and the post-closing transition. Each part is a standalone post; together they form a complete checklist.
Structuring a Management Services Organization in California - Part 4
AB 1415 and Advance Notice to the State Assembly Bill 1415 - Under the expanded framework of this bill, private equity groups, hedge funds, MSOs, and certain entities newly formed to carry out healthcare deals may be required to provide advance written notice to the state—generally at least 90 days before executing a qualifying management services agreement or transaction—and to observe the waiting period before closing. The notice runs to California's healthcare market oversight body. The practical effect is that MSO formation and acquisition timelines must now build in a regulatory waiting period that did not previously exist, and parties should determine early whether a contemplated deal triggers the requirement.
Structuring a Management Services Organization in California - Part 3
Governance and Decision Rights A clean MSA on paper is not enough. In 2026, California regulators and the Attorney General are looking past the documents to ask a harder question: in practice, who actually controls the clinical enterprise? Governance is where that question is answered, and where...
Structuring a Management Services Organization in California - Part 2
The Management Services Agreement If the two-entity structure is the skeleton, the management services agreement (MSA) is the spine. It is the contract that defines the entire relationship between the MSO and the PC—what services the MSO provides, how it is paid, and, just as importantly, what i...
Structuring a Management Services Organization in California - Part 1
California's corporate practice of medicine doctrine makes it one of the most challenging states in which to build a scalable healthcare business. The management services organization (MSO) model is the principal tool practices and investors use to do it lawfully. This four-part series walks through the structure from the ground up: the foundational entities, the contract that binds them, the governance that keeps clinical authority where the law requires it, and the regulatory obligations that took effect in 2026.
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA: Implementation
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA — PART 4 OF 4 Practical Implementation: From Letter of Intent to First Patient A phased, sequenced plan for getting the deal done on time and in compliance. Series: Part 1: The Framework | Part 2: The Legal Rules | Part 3: Common Mistakes ...
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA: Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA — PART 3 OF 4 Common Mistakes Buyers Make — and How to Avoid Them Seven recurring errors that delay closings, raise costs, or unwind deals. Series: Part 1: The Framework | Part 2: The Legal Rules | Part 3: Common Mistakes | Part 4: Pract...
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA: The Legal Rules
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA — PART 2 OF 4 The Legal Rules That Govern Your Purchase Corporate practice of medicine, ownership limits, the 2026 restrictions, and what does not transfer. Series: Part 1: The Framework | Part 2: The Legal Rules | Part 3: Common Mistakes ...
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA: The framework
BUYING A MEDICAL PRACTICE IN CALIFORNIA — PART 1 OF 4 The Framework: How Medical Practice Purchases Work in California Before price or paperwork, understand who can own a practice and how these deals are built. Series: Part 1: The Framework | Part 2: The Legal Rules | Part 3: Comm...
FCA - Protect Your Practice
PART 3 OF 3 Protecting Your Practice — Before It's Too Late The good news is that FCA exposure is largely manageable with discipline and the right advice. The practices that fare best are not the ones that never make mistakes — they are the ones that find and fix mistakes before a whistleblower...
Ordinary Medical Practice FCA Violations
PART 2 OF 3 How Ordinary Practices Get Caught Very few practices set out to defraud the government. Far more stumble into FCA exposure through routine billing habits that drift out of compliance. Understanding the common fact patterns is the first line of defense. The conduct that draws scru...
Why the FCA should be on your radar
A WEST COAST HEALTH LAW SERIES The False Claims Act in Healthcare What Every Practice Owner Must Know Before It's Too Late The False Claims Act (FCA) is the federal government's most powerful tool against healthcare fraud — and it doesn't require intent to defraud to ruin a practice. In fiscal...
A Practical Launch Guide for 104 NPs
Part 3: So Should You Hang Your Own Shingle? A Practical Launch Guide for 104 NPs Part 3 of a 3-part series on independent nurse practitioner practice in California. Parts 1 and 2 covered the law: 104 NP certification lets a qualified nurse practitioner practice independently, and a nursing cor...
What you can — and cannot — call yourself
Part 2: Yes, You Can Own It — But It Has to Be a Nursing Corporation Part 2 of a 3-part series on independent nurse practitioner practice in California. In Part 1 we established that a 104 NP can legally run an independent practice without a supervising physician. That raises the natural follow...
California NPs can finally own their own practice. Here's the catch.
Part 1: What California's “104 NP” Actually Means — and What It Doesn't Part 1 of a 3-part series on independent nurse practitioner practice in California. If you are a nurse practitioner in California, you have probably heard that 2026 is the year you can finally “go independent” — open yo...