Collaborative Practice Agreement · PharmD
District of Columbia Collaborative Practice Agreement for Pharmacists
Required. The Collaborative Practice Agreement is the written instrument District of Columbia law names for a Pharmacist working with a physician. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Represents DC's optional pharmacist-physician Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) tier under § 3-1202.08, not ordinary pharmacist licensure — base dispensing needs no such agreement and is out of scope here. The CPA is elective for both parties and has no independence pathway once entered.
What a District of Columbia Collaborative Practice Agreement must contain
Governed by the DC Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
The Pharmacist may enter into a written collaborative practice agreement with the Physician authorizing the Pharmacist to initiate, modify, or discontinue a drug therapy regimen for the Physician's patients, as provided by DC Code § 3-1202.08. The DC Board of Pharmacy and DC Board of Medicine have jointly adopted regulations governing the required form, approval, and revocation of such agreements.
Source: DC Code § 3-1202.08
District of Columbia law does not require a pharmacist to enter into a collaborative practice agreement in order to hold a pharmacist license or dispense medications generally; the agreement described in this Agreement is required only if the Pharmacist and the Physician elect to engage in the collaborative drug therapy management described above.
- The Collaborative Practice Agreement on file also carries 1 scope, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- DC Code § 3-1202.08statute
Authorizes pharmacist-physician collaborative practice agreements to initiate, modify, or discontinue a drug therapy regimen, and directs the Board of Pharmacy and Board of Medicine to jointly issue implementing regulations.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the agreement has to carry, from the state's supervision rules.
Proximity
Not codified — left to the agreement
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
Under a CPA, the pharmacist may initiate, modify, or discontinue drug therapy for the physician's patients per the agreement's specified terms (§ 3-1202.08; 17 DCMR Ch. 100/22-B DCMR Ch. 10006) — this is drug-therapy management under a jointly Board of Pharmacy/Board of Medicine-approved protocol, not independent DEA-registered controlled-substance prescribing, so controlledSubstancesAllowed is coded False here; whether CPA terms may extend to controlled substances was not confirmed in this pass.
Written agreement
Required
Only required if the pharmacist and physician elect to engage in collaborative drug therapy management under § 3-1202.08 — a pharmacist's base license and general dispensing authority need no agreement at all.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement was identified for DC pharmacy permits — not independently confirmed against a specific statute/reg in this pass; treat as consistent with the typical non-restrictive pharmacy-ownership pattern seen in other states rather than a settled DC-specific finding.
Materially more permissive than the healing-arts CPOM regime governing PA/NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS above, if confirmed.
Legal sources for these rules (2)
- D.C. Code § 3-1202.08 — Board of Pharmacy (collaborative practice agreements)
- 22-B DCMR Ch. 10006 / 17 DCMR Ch. 100 — Collaborative Practice Agreements Between Physicians and Pharmacists
About District of Columbia's rules
The Health Occupations Revision Amendment Act of 2024 repealed D.C. Code § 3-1206.03, eliminating the collaboration mandate for all APRN categories (NP/PMHNP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) — DC is now a full-practice-authority jurisdiction for APRNs. PAs are NOT covered by that reform and still require a Board of Medicine Delegation Agreement regardless of experience; no autonomous-PA pathway was found in DC as of this pass.
Other clinicians in District of Columbia: see the state overview.