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Colorado · Sell-Side M&A
Colorado follows the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, and that single rule decides how your practice can change hands. A non-physician buyer cannot simply purchase the practice here. The deal has to run through a physician-owned professional corporation and a separate management company, and that structure is exactly where value is won or lost. We represent Colorado owners only, and we build the deal around the rules instead of around the buyer.
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Colorado's Real Differentiator
Colorado follows the corporate practice of medicine doctrine. A non-physician, a private equity firm, or a general corporation cannot own a medical practice or direct clinical decisions here. Only a physician-owned professional corporation can own and run the practice. The rule does not live in one tidy statute. It comes from the Colorado Medical Practice Act, codified at Article 240 of Title 12, where it is unprofessional conduct for a physician to practice in collaboration with an unlicensed entity rather than a professional service corporation for the practice of medicine. That is why a Colorado sale is never an off-the-shelf company purchase, and why structure decides whether your deal closes and at what price.
The lawful path is a one-hundred-percent physician-owned professional corporation that keeps the clinical practice and the license-bound revenue, paired with a management services organization that provides non-clinical business services under a management services agreement. The MSO, covering billing, HR, marketing, equipment, real estate, and admin, is what a non-physician buyer actually owns and capitalizes.
The restriction runs through the Medical Practice Act at C.R.S. Article 240 of Title 12. Unprofessional conduct sits at C.R.S. 12-240-121, and the professional service corporation rules sit at C.R.S. 12-240-138. Colorado recodified Title 12 in 2019, so older references such as the former 12-36-117 numbering are out of date.
The management fee has to be market-rate and cannot look like profit-sharing or de-facto control, or the structure fails. The MSO cannot direct clinical decisions. A figurehead physician arrangement, where a non-physician entity really runs the practice, is non-compliant and is the kind of thing that re-prices a deal at diligence.
A private equity or strategic buyer acquires the MSO and the practice's assets, then contracts with the physician-owned PC through the management services agreement. The sell-side job is to deliver a clean, defensible separation and a credible physician-owner transition plan before a buyer ever reaches diligence.
Colorado does not use the phrase corporate practice of medicine in a single statute. The doctrine is created by the Medical Practice Act read together with the professional-service-corporation rules, accurate as of June 2026. Cite the current Article 240 numbering, C.R.S. 12-240-121 and C.R.S. 12-240-138, not the pre-2019 numbering. Sources: Zivian Health, Maureen West Law, and Permit Health corporate-practice-of-medicine analyses, with the statute sections confirmed on Justia (linked in our sources).
| Signal | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Colorado population | ~5.9M | US Census Bureau estimate |
| State-level med spa count | Not published | AmSpa reports national totals only |
| Dermatologists in Colorado | ~530 | BLS OEWS, May 2022 (LQ 2.46) |
| U.S. Dermatology Partners CO locations | 6 | Platform locations page |
AmSpa's State of the Medical Spa Industry report publishes a national med spa count only and includes no state-by-state breakdown or ranking. The dermatologist count is a separate BLS provider-depth signal. Population figure is a US Census Bureau estimate.
Market Reality
AmSpa's State of the Medical Spa Industry report publishes a national med spa count only, with no state-by-state breakdown or ranking, so we will not cite an uncitable Colorado figure. What is verifiable is provider depth: the Bureau of Labor Statistics counted about 530 dermatologists in the state in its May 2022 wage data at a 2.46 location quotient, and U.S. Dermatology Partners alone operates at least six Colorado locations across Arvada, Golden, Sterling, Denver, Lakewood, and Littleton.
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Estimate only. A ballpark from limited inputs plus published industry M&A benchmarks.
What Moves Value Here
No Colorado-specific sale multiple is published, and we will not invent one. The honest anchor is the national vertical range already on our med spa, cosmetic dermatology, and plastic surgery hubs. For an aesthetic or med spa practice, national earnings multiples generally sit around three to six times for smaller practices and step up with scale and brand strength, with deal structure commonly built on cash at close plus rollover equity, earnouts, and holdbacks. What changes a Colorado seller's realized value is how the deal has to be built and how cleanly the structure holds up.
Because the deal runs through a friendly-PC and MSO wrap, a buyer is paying for the MSO's management-fee stream and the durability of the PC relationship, not a clean equity purchase. Clean structure transacts at the top of the range. Sloppy structure invites a re-trade or a delay.
Map my structure →Under the corporate-practice rule, the PC has to stay genuinely physician-controlled after close. Buyers pay up for a credible, committed clinical owner and discount for a figurehead, so rollover equity and a real transition plan carry more weight in a Colorado deal.
See the structure →Colorado's high dermatologist concentration signals a competitive provider market, and national platforms are already buying here. That demand is what supports the national range, while provider retention and non-competes get close scrutiny.
Who is buying →National aesthetic and med spa earnings ranges are published by AmSpa and are stated here as national context only. We do not publish a Colorado-specific multiple, because none exists in a citable, defensible form. Your real range comes from a confidential, practice-specific analysis of your earnings, your structure, and your comps.
Who Is Actually Buying in Colorado
A Colorado seller does not depend on one local acquirer. Well-capitalized national platforms buy here, and there is a documented, in-state proof point: U.S. Dermatology Partners, a private-equity-backed national platform, operates at least six Colorado locations across Arvada, Golden, Sterling, Denver, Lakewood, and Littleton. As a historical proof point of platform appetite, Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery acquired Denver Dermatology Consultants and its three Colorado locations, announced back in 2015. We will never name a "local buyer" that does not exist.
Detail bars are redacted by design. Every name and activity claim on this board is published from verifiable records; anything beyond the public record stays confidential. U.S. Dermatology Partners is the in-state proof point, documented on its own Colorado locations page. The Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery acquisition of Denver Dermatology Consultants was announced in 2015, included here as historical evidence of platform appetite, not a recent transaction. Other platforms are named only as national consolidators in the dermatology and aesthetics vertical. No local-only buyer is asserted.
Colorado Sale FAQ
Not the way they would buy a normal business. Colorado follows the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, so a non-physician investor or a general corporation cannot own a medical practice or direct clinical decisions. The lawful path is the friendly-PC and MSO structure: a physician-owned professional corporation keeps the clinical practice and the license-bound revenue, and a separate management services organization, the part the investor owns and funds, contracts to provide non-clinical business services for a fee under a management services agreement. That is why a Colorado sale is a structured transaction, the buyer acquiring the MSO and the practice assets, not a simple stock or asset purchase of the clinical entity.
Colorado does not have one tidy statute that says corporate practice of medicine. The restriction comes from the Colorado Medical Practice Act, which is codified at Article 240 of Title 12 in the Colorado Revised Statutes. Two provisions matter most: it is unprofessional conduct for a physician to practice as an employee or in collaboration with an unlicensed entity rather than a professional service corporation for the practice of medicine, which sits at C.R.S. 12-240-121, and the professional service corporation rules sit at C.R.S. 12-240-138. Colorado recodified Title 12 in 2019, so older references such as the former 12-36-117 numbering are out of date. We work from the current Article 240 citations.
No. There is no published Colorado-specific multiple, and we will not quote one. What we use is the national vertical range for your practice type, then we explain how Colorado law and market move structure and value. A practice that is already cleanly structured for compliance, with a physician-controlled PC, a market-rate management fee that does not look like profit-sharing, and a real physician-owner transition plan, transacts faster and holds its value. A messy or non-compliant structure invites re-trading and discounts at diligence. Your real number comes from a confidential, practice-specific analysis.
Demand is national, and there is a verifiable in-state footprint. U.S. Dermatology Partners, a private-equity-backed national platform, operates at least six Colorado locations across Arvada, Golden, Sterling, Denver, Lakewood, and Littleton, which is direct proof of an active platform with a real Colorado presence. As a historical proof point of platform appetite, Advanced Dermatology and Cosmetic Surgery acquired Denver Dermatology Consultants and its three Colorado locations, announced back in 2015. Other national PE-backed platforms consolidate in the broader dermatology and aesthetics vertical. The accurate picture is well-capitalized national platforms buying in Colorado, not a single local acquirer, and we will never name a local buyer that does not exist.
Colorado is a smaller state with a deep physician base. AmSpa’s State of the Medical Spa Industry report publishes a national med spa count only, with no state-by-state breakdown or ranking, so we will not cite an uncitable Colorado figure. What is verifiable is provider depth: the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted about 530 dermatologists in Colorado in its May 2022 wage data, with a location quotient of 2.46, roughly two and a half times the national average concentration for its employment base.
Yes, unless and until you choose to tell people. We run every process under strict confidentiality, with confidentiality agreements, secure data rooms, staged disclosure, and a vetted buyer process. Premature disclosure can unsettle staff, shake patient confidence, and weaken your negotiating position, so you decide what is shared, with whom, and when. Because a Colorado deal has to deliver a clean friendly-PC and MSO separation, we plan that structure with you privately and openly, well before any buyer sees your name.
Match Your Practice Type
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Who you work with
Bill Walker founded Aesthetic Brokers after leading mergers and acquisitions for a large private-equity-backed healthcare services organization. Before that he flew for the Marine Corps at the Presidential Helicopter Squadron and commanded a squadron in combat. He knows how an investor values a practice, and how to make sure that value lands with you, not the buyer.
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