Modality Authorization
A physician approves which devices and peel depths your clinic offers and who is credentialed to use each one.
Skin & Resurfacing
Find a Medical Director for Skin Resurfacing Programs
Microneedling, chemical peels, laser and IPL, and injectable skin boosters are prescription-adjacent treatments with real complication risk. A director sets the protocol by device and depth, and signs off on who is allowed to run it.
Medical Director Oversight
What a Director Actually Signs Off for Skin & Resurfacing
Each of these is a decision your director owns, in writing, before it happens in your clinic.
Skin-Type Screening
Fitzpatrick-indexed criteria set before treatment, not judged by the injector in the room.
Downtime Protocols
Post-procedure care and complication signs your staff can recognize and act on, documented per patient.
Device Competency
Training sign-off per provider and device, refreshed as your equipment or team changes.
What We Set Up
Everything Behind a Compliant Skin Resurfacing Program
A resurfacing menu carries more risk than it looks like from the treatment room — peel depth, device settings and skin-type screening all need a protocol before the first patient sits down.
Standing orders by modality — microneedling, RF microneedling, peels, laser and IPL
Fitzpatrick-indexed treatment parameters and exclusion criteria
Peel-depth authorization, from superficial through medium
Injectable skin booster protocols, including polynucleotide and exosome-adjacent regimens
Downtime counseling and post-procedure documentation standards
Complication and adverse-reaction escalation route
Supply
Where the Product Comes From
FAQ
Questions About Skin & Resurfacing
Still not sure? Twenty minutes on the phone answers what a page can't.
Does Microneedling Need a Medical Director?
Depending on depth and whether radiofrequency is involved, yes in most states — it crosses from esthetic into medical treatment quickly. Your protocols set the line for your state.
Can an Esthetician Perform Chemical Peels?
Superficial peels are often within scope; medium-depth peels usually are not without physician delegation. We confirm the boundary for your license mix.
Are Injectable Skin Boosters Like Polynucleotides Regulated the Same as Fillers?
They follow the same standing-order and delegation rules as any other injectable, even though they are often marketed as skincare rather than a medical treatment.
Do Laser and IPL Platforms Need Their Own Authorization?
Yes — device settings and who is credentialed to operate each platform get approved by name, the same as a peel depth or an injectable product.
What Happens If a Patient Has a Fitzpatrick-inappropriate Reaction?
Your protocol sets exclusion criteria before treatment based on skin type, so the goal is preventing the reaction, with a documented escalation route if one happens anyway.
Who Is Allowed to Own a Skin Resurfacing Business?
Can a non-physician own a skin resurfacing practice? The business, yes. The clinical entity — the one deciding peel depth, device settings and who is a candidate — generally has to sit with a licensed physician in most states.
That is what the corporate practice of medicine doctrine decides — and it is the single rule that shapes how your business is built. Most states hold that medical judgment belongs to licensed clinicians, so a non-physician or a general corporation may not own or control an entity that practices medicine. The MSO model is the answer the industry settled on.
The Rule
CPOM — Corporate Practice of Medicine
A doctrine in state law, not a company or a service. The professional entity — the PC — must be owned by a licensed physician, and control counts as much as ownership: who hires the clinicians, who sets the fees, who decides what gets treated.
Only a licensed physician may own the professional entity in most states
Control counts too — hiring clinicians, setting fees, directing treatment
Fee-splitting rules limit how the MSO can be paid
Enforcement is by medical boards, attorneys general, insurers and acquirers
The Structure
MSO — Management Services Organization
The company that provides everything a Skin Resurfacing clinic needs that is not the practice of medicine, under a written management services agreement with the PC. You can own the MSO outright, whatever your license.
Owned by you, whatever your license — no physician equity required
Holds the brand, lease, staff, systems, supply and marketing
Paid a fair-market management fee, never a cut of clinical revenue
Takes no part in diagnosis, treatment or any clinical decision
How the two meet: a physician-owned PC employs the clinical team and holds the medical decisions; your MSO holds the brand, the lease, the staff, the systems and the supply; a fair-market management fee moves between them; and the line is drawn in writing where your state says it must be. Energy-based devices and medium-depth peels carry their own delegation rules on top of the general doctrine.
Watch
Where the Money Actually Goes
What This Covers
How money actually moves through a PC/MSO structure — patient revenue landing in the PC, the fixed management transfer to the MSO, MedGrid's retainer, and physician compensation — the same CPOM flow of funds covered on this page, walked through step by step.
This isn't just how we recommend running the accounts. In a state that enforces corporate practice of medicine, this exact flow is required to keep a PC structure compliant: revenue lands in the PC first, the MSO is paid a fixed, fair-market amount rather than a share of medical revenue, MedGrid is paid a fixed retainer by the MSO, and the accounts stay separate.
It's also why MedGrid only builds on a PC — never a PLLC — in every state we work in. A PLLC lets revenue flow straight into a member's account with no equivalent separation, which is exactly the structure this flow of funds is built to avoid. Why that distinction matters.
Getting It WrongMistake 01 Mistake 02 Mistake 03 Mistake 04
Four Ways Skin Resurfacing Clinics Get Structured Badly
These are the arrangements we most often find in place when a clinic comes to us, usually built in good faith, on advice from someone who had not read the state's rules.
An LLC That Should Be a PC
The clinical entity was formed as a plain LLC owned by a non-physician. In a strict state that is the whole problem, and it usually surfaces at diligence or renewal.
A Director on a Handshake
A physician agreed to "be the medical director" with no management agreement, no delegation document and no standing orders. There is nothing to show a board.
A Fee That Looks Like a Split
The MSO takes a percentage of clinical revenue. Many states read that as fee-splitting regardless of what the contract calls it.
Protocols From a Course
Treatment protocols copied from a training weekend, never adapted to this state or signed by the director who is supposed to own them.
General information about how these structures work, not legal advice for your clinic. Your director and your counsel confirm the specifics before you treat.
Other Modalities We Cover
GLP-1 Weight LossPeptide TherapyHRT / TRTIV Drips & HydrationInjectables & NeurotoxinsTelehealth PrescribingHair RestorationOzone TherapyLongevity DiagnosticsLasers & Energy DevicesExosomes & RegenerativeVitamin InjectionsSexual Wellness
Adding Skin Resurfacing to Your Menu?
Twenty minutes tells you what direction costs in your state, what has to be on file before the first patient, and how fast you can start.