Home › Buying & funding › State requirements
State requirements
What it takes to operate the unit, state by state.
The vehicle is the same in every state; the paperwork to operate it is not. These pages cover Indiana, New York, New Jersey, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee, with more states coming soon. Each answers the same questions for a mobile medical clinic, a mobile dental unit and a mobile mammography unit: whether the mobile clinic itself needs a facility license, whether certificate-of-need review applies, how X-ray and mammography equipment is registered (and the federal MQSA certificate that applies everywhere), and what the dental board requires of a mobile or portable dental operation. Every statement links the official agency or statute page it was read on, with the date. Need a state that is not listed yet? Tell us where the unit will work.
IN
Indiana
Indiana has no certificate-of-need review for clinics or imaging, registers every X-ray and mammography machine with the Department of Health, permits mobile dental facilities through the State Board of Dentistry, and requires an operator based outside Indiana to register a mobile health unit before it sees a patient.
NY
New York
New York treats a mobile health van as an Article 28 extension clinic. Only a licensed hospital or diagnostic and treatment center may operate one, and certifying the van takes a certificate-of-need Limited Review. X-ray equipment is registered with the State Health Department, or with the City Health Department inside New York City.
NJ
New Jersey
New Jersey licenses ambulatory care facilities through the Department of Health and runs certificate-of-need review under N.J.A.C. 8:33, but neither program names a mobile clinic on its public pages. X-ray equipment, including equipment permanently mounted in a vehicle, is registered with the Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of X-Ray Compliance.
FL
Florida
Florida's Health Care Clinic Act says in so many words that a "clinic" includes "a mobile clinic and a portable equipment provider," so a mobile unit that bills for care needs an AHCA clinic license unless it fits an exemption. Certificate of need no longer touches outpatient services or equipment. X-ray machines are registered with the Department of Health, which also runs the MQSA inspections for the FDA.
SC
South Carolina
South Carolina issues the federal MQSA certificate itself, through the Department of Environmental Services, which also approves every X-ray facility before equipment is installed and asks a mobile facility for its operating schedule. Mobile dental facilities register with the Board of Dentistry. Certificate of need was repealed in 2023 for everything but nursing homes and, until 2027, hospitals.
TN
Tennessee
Tennessee registers every X-ray machine with the Division of Radiological Health, writes the rules for mobile dental clinics into the Board of Dentistry's general rules, and still runs certificate-of-need review that can reach a heavily equipped imaging unit. A physician-run mobile clinic has no facility license category of its own.
Checked Oct 15, 2026. A starting point, not legal advice: rules change, and local permits (county health, fire, zoning, parking) are not listed. Confirm each item with the agency before you budget or schedule, and tell us if a page has moved.
Request a proposal
Tell us the state and the program. The proposal carries the vehicle facts the forms ask for.
Floor plan, weight, power, radiation shielding where the unit carries an X-ray or mammography machine, and the documents HLE issues with the vehicle. Say which state the unit will work in.
Or call 574-343-2150, 7:30 to 4:30 Eastern, and ask for Tabatha.