At Lemma
What you provide
The entity is checked against tax and state registration records, so the application is three groups of fields, identical for the PC and the MSO:
That is the whole requirement in the ordinary case. No formation PDFs, no bylaws, no stock ledger, no certificate of good standing, no branch visit.
That is a 5-minute form. Government ID is a fallback, not a default: it is requested when the tax ID alone doesn’t verify, which is more likely for an entity formed two weeks ago.
Timing
About 5 minutes per entity to apply, and most entities are approved within hours. The same short form repeats for each additional PC at the same speed as the first, so entity twelve opens as fast as entity one.The MSA, which nobody requires
No account application requires the management services agreement. Sharing it with Lemma is still worthwhile, for a reason unrelated to onboarding: Lemma can hold the accounts to what the agreement says. The funds flow the MSA describes (patient revenue landing in the PC’s account, the management fee leaving on an invoice rather than a standing pull) becomes account configuration, and any sweep is set up so the clinician-owner can see it and stop it.Before you apply
- The CP 575 legal name recorded exactly as printed, plus the EIN and state of incorporation
- The control person: for a professional entity, the PC’s licensed officer
- Every beneficial owner at or above 25%, answered accurately
- Government ID for each of them, in case the automated check doesn’t clear
- The executed MSA, if you want the accounts configured against it
At a brick-and-mortar bank
Everything above, plus the following, per entity.For a professional entity (PC / PLLC / PA)
For the MSO
Timing
One to three weeks per entity. Professional entities trip automated KYB flows, because the system cannot verify a two-week-old PC with a licensed owner and a d/b/a, so expect a manual review or a branch visit. The next PC is the same packet at the same friction as the first. Account details are a prerequisite for EFT enrollment, which is a prerequisite for getting paid, so on this route, banking sits on the critical path to revenue. Start it in parallel with NPI and CAQH work, not after.The MSA, filed rather than used
A brick-and-mortar bank that asks for the MSA reads it once and files it. It has no mechanism to act on it. The account behaves like every other business checking account, and every control the agreement implies stays yours to enforce by hand. Read what you hand over.Before you apply
Everything in the Lemma checklist above, plus:- The full document packet, current and legible, per entity
- A one-paragraph written explanation of the MSO-PC structure
- The list of authorized signers, with the PC’s officer identified
- One to three weeks of lead time in the launch plan
Regardless of where you bank
The beneficial ownership problem
This one does not shorten. Whichever route you take, you answer the same question, and standard beneficial ownership questionnaires do not understand this structure. The form asks: “Who owns 25% or more of the entity?” For the PC, the answer is the clinician, 100%, even though the economics are governed by the MSA and the equity is subject to a transfer restriction. That is the accurate answer, and it is the one to give. For the MSO, the answer is your actual cap table. Answer accurately and be prepared to explain the structure. Guessing at what the bank wants to hear produces an inaccurate filing. Some banks will follow up; a one-paragraph written explanation of the MSO-PC relationship, prepared in advance, resolves most of it. Also expect questions about control: who directs the entity’s activities, and who has authority over the accounts. For the PC, the answer is the clinician-officer. If you find yourself wanting to answer “the MSO,” that is a signal worth examining in your CPOM self-audit.The name must match, everywhere
The legal name on the CP 575 must match:- The bank account
- The W-9
- NPPES
- Every payer enrollment
- The claim’s billing provider name
Other account requirements
- Read-only access provisioned for whoever does the bookkeeping
- A naming convention decided once and applied to every account
- Confirmation the bank surfaces ACH addenda data, since the TRN is how you reconcile 835s to deposits