Hi, I’m Michael H Cohen, founding attorney of Cohen Healthcare Law Group.  In today’s video, we’ll talk about what you need to put in a name in a California Professional Medical Corporation., affectionally known as a “PMC.”

The rules in California are very specific:

1. You need this Professional Designation that is a professional corporation. Words like “Professional Corporation,” “P.C.,” or “Prof. Corp.” So, for example, our law firm “Cohen Healthcare Law Group, PC”
2. There are certain permitted words, and the words really should indicate the specific profession or type of services. For example, “Dermatological Practice” or “IV Hydration Clinic” or “Medical Spa.”
3. The name have to be distinct from other names of similar entities in California, so that the consumer is not confused.
4. Typically, you want to include the physician’s name. For one, it’s common practice. And secondly, it helps with the branding and the recognition especially if it’s a well-known doc.

There might be other very specific medical board or department of public health regulations depending on the exact type of practice, or company, or clinic. So, you will want to check with us but these are the general rules.

Another point is that if you got a corporation that say has a 51% MD owner, a 49% Nurse, you might want to put the physician’s name in the title so that nobody gets confused about the ownership of the corporation.

Now, a lot of these rules are common sense, and you have to be careful because even if you do follow these rules, there can be what I call a collateral line of attack. So, for example, you could have the medical board, or some other agencies come in for another reason. They might just say that the name is not good enough, it’s false and misleading, it’s deceptive advertising.

So, you’re going to want a healthcare lawyer’s eyes on this simple, even though precisely defined persnickety little point of California law, which is how you name your professional medical corporation.

Now, one exception: Let’s say you’re not the physician, but you’re the MSO, you’re the driving business that’s going to brand this medical spa across states. Then, you have to kind of work with these rules to make sure you accommodate them, but you also want to brand the MSO. So, you could come in to create arrangements, like, for example, licensing a name.

So, how do you deal with that? We have some more resources on our blog, and also we’d love to work with you. We’ve helped hundreds and hundreds of clients every year. So, if you’re interested, please give us a call and we’d love to get you started.