Professional Optometric Corporations

PURPOSE: This rule governs professional optometric corporations. (1) No person licensed under the provisions of Chapter 336, RSMo shall organize, form or, at any time, participate as incorporator, director, shareholder or officer of any corporation organized under the provisions of the Professional Corporation Law of Missouri, except— (A) All incorporators, directors and officers, other than the secretary of the corporation, shall be registered under the provisions of Chapter 336, RSMo, shall have paid all fees due under that chapter and must be in good standing with the board, except that, if more than one (1) type of professional service is practiced by the professional corporation pursuant to the provisions of subsection (1)(C), then the incorporators, directors and officers other than secretary of the corporation, shall be in good standing with the Missouri State Board of Registration for the Healing Arts and duly licensed to practice one (1) or more of the professional services referred to in subsection (1)(C); (B) The proposed name of the corporation shall contain the surname of each registered practitioner within the corporation owning ten percent (10%) or more of the outstanding stock of the corporation; provided, however, that if there are more than three (3) registered practitioners, each of whom owns more than ten percent (10%) of the stock of the corporation, the proposed corporate name shall contain only the names of the three (3) practitioners who own the greatest number of shares of stock of the proposed corporation. The proposed corporation shall end with the words Professional Corporation or P.C. The proposed name of the corporation shall contain the name of the profession to be practiced or the professional title of practitioners of that profession but no other words other than those previously specified. However, words other than those provided in this rule may be used in proposed corporate names where the words are found by a majority of the board at a regularly scheduled meeting to be in keeping with the ethical standards of the profession; and (C) A professional corporation may be organized only for the purpose of rendering optometric service and its ancillary services except that a multiple purpose professional corporation may be organized to render optometric services in conjunction with any services that lawfully may be rendered by a physician, surgeon, doctor of medicine or doctor of osteopathy licensed under the provisions of a licensing law of this state. AUTHORITY: section 336.160, RSMo Supp. 2007.* This rule originally filed as 4 CSR 210-2.050. This version of rule filed Dec. 19, 1975, effective Dec. 29, 1975. Amended: Filed May 14, 1987, effective Sept. 11, 1987. Moved to 20 CSR 2210-2.050, effective Aug. 28, 2006. Amended: Filed Dec. 5, 2007, effective June 30, 2008. *Original authority: 336.160, RSMo 1939, amended 1947, 1963, 1981, 2007.