Who Is Allowed to Own a Medical Practice? | John Rhodes

Private equity owns a lot of medical practices - except it usually doesn't own the practice at all.

John Rhodes has practiced healthcare law for nearly 20 years, most recently leading the legal team at Walmart Health. In February 2025 he founded Health Law Counsel in Denver, where he represents everyone from large health systems to medical practice, behavioral health and AI startups. He also hosts the Health Law Pulse podcast.

He joins Jakub Grajcar to explain how practices are actually structured - and what changes when you scale across a state line.

We dig into:

🏥 John's #1 tip for growing a practice - the right tech stack, and leaders who actually know healthcare
🏛️ Who can own a medical practice - the three corporate practice of medicine prohibitions, and the states that have some version of them
🤝 How the MSO-PC model works
⚖️ The Art Center Holdings case pending in California - what a ruling on share transfer restriction agreements would change, and why John is rooting for the outcome he is
🗺️ Crossing a state line - NP and PA supervision rules, licensure, telehealth, record retention, and why most practices just apply the strictest state everywhere
📊 The three data basics - know where your data lives, decide your institutional position on de-identified data, then put a real approval process behind it
🤖 Adopting AI well - state disclosure rules for AI chatbots, the FDA line on clinical decision support, and keeping a human on prior auth

Resources mentioned:

👤 Guest: Johnathan A. Rhodes - Founder, Health Law Counsel, LLC
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnrhodesjd
Website: https://www.healthlawcounsel.com

🎙️ Podcast - Health Law Pulse
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/health-law-pulse/id1864421920
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4vKjzL8Xr3Xdyv6uhUCuIN

📰 Where John keeps up
CMS listservs and rule updates: https://www.cms.gov
HHS Office of Inspector General enforcement briefings: https://oig.hhs.gov
Department of Justice press releases: https://www.justice.gov
LexisNexis: https://www.lexisnexis.com
Modern Healthcare: https://www.modernhealthcare.com
Newsletters from the larger healthcare law firms


🎥 See how Talkie.ai works - AI medical receptionist demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOiJ3ITTrLY&list=PLLjcCBHYN2KoBqm-Dx-8lIwWLuU-CHXSg

What is Scaling Practice Management by Talkie.ai?

Scaling Practice Management is the show for healthcare practice leaders who want to grow smarter, not harder. Real stories, proven strategies, and emerging tech — all to help you scale your clinic without burning out your team or sacrificing patient care.