Wisconsin Management Services Agreement Guide: Fees, Billing and the Rule Against Collecting a Physician's Fees
Wisconsin's fee-splitting statute and a 1986 Attorney General opinion reach a corporation that collects a physician's fees while the physician gets patients through it, so the MSO never collects professional fees.
Key Highlights
- The fee-splitting statute bars giving or receiving anything of value for referring patients or for professional services not rendered personally or at the licensee's direction.
- The 1986 opinion reads it to catch a business corporation that collects a physician's fees while the physician gets patients through it.
- A statute requires separate bills from each practitioner, with a service corporation exception allowing a single bill that identifies each rendering licensee.
- We found no Wisconsin authority approving or banning percentage fees.
How to Price the Management Fee
The fee-splitting statute and Board rule Med 10.03 bar giving or receiving compensation for referrals or for services not actually and personally rendered while preserving lawful professional corporations. A percentage fee paid to an unlicensed management company that also markets or refers patients is the highest-risk pattern, and a fixed, fair-market fee for administrative services is the conservative design, which is our analysis and not a stated rule.
What the Practice Must Keep
The service corporation keeps ownership and control, and the management company has no part in either, since an unlicensed person may not have any part in the ownership or control. The practice keeps clinical decisions and bills in a way that identifies each rendering licensee.
Terms to Avoid
Avoid the management company collecting or touching professional fees except as a flat payment for defined services, any referral-linked pay, proxies or votes for unlicensed persons and a remote paper medical director. The Cosmetology Examining Board's rule requires delegated medical procedures to be directed, supervised and inspected by a physician under written protocols.
Term, Records and Departing Clinicians
Non-competes follow a general reasonableness test, and a 2026 bill that would make physician non-competes unenforceable after two years had a hearing in January, with its fate unconfirmed. We do not use non-competes for employed clinicians.
Filings, Notices and Watch Items
We found no enacted Wisconsin transaction notice law. A 2025 act creates an APRN license effective September 1, 2026, but an independent APRN still could not be owned or controlled by a lay management company if the entity must be a service corporation.
Drafting Checklist
- Fee: flat, fair market, administrative only.
- Collections: the MSO never collects professional fees.
- Control: no part in ownership or control.
- Billing: identifies each rendering licensee.
- Delegation: physician directs, supervises and inspects.
How We Draft It
Patients pay the physician-owned practice, the practice pays the management company a fixed monthly fee under the agreement, and the management company pays MedGrid a fixed monthly retainer for consulting. The management company never practices medicine, and the agreement never moves a clinical decision to it. Our template follows the same flat-fee design in every state, with the state-specific limits below layered on top.
Disclaimer
This article is general educational information, not legal advice. Management agreement rules change and differ by state, and this summary draws on our published state guide, parts of which rest on secondary sources, so have health care counsel in the state review any agreement before you sign.
MedGrid MSO provides management services to independently owned practices; it does not practise medicine and does not direct clinical decisions. Requirements vary by state and by service, and change over time — nothing on this page is legal or medical advice. Talk to us or your own counsel before making a structural decision for your clinic.