Collaborative Practice Agreement · PharmD
Massachusetts Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) for Pharmacists
Required. The Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) is the written instrument Massachusetts 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 MA's Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) tier (247 CMR 16.00), not base pharmacist licensure. CDTM is permanently physician-agreement-dependent with no independence pathway; community-pharmacy CDTM is limited to 9 enumerated chronic conditions and Schedule VI (non-controlled) drugs only.
What a Massachusetts Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) must contain
Governed by the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
Massachusetts does not require the Pharmacist to hold a collaborative practice agreement in order to practice pharmacy generally. To engage in collaborative drug therapy management for a specific collaborative practice, however, the Pharmacist (who must have training and experience relevant to that practice) and the Physician shall enter into a written and signed Collaborative Practice Agreement ("CPA"), consistent with M.G.L. c. 112 §§ 24B1/2–24B3/4 and 247 CMR 16.00. The collaborative practice defined by the CPA must be within the scope of the Physician's own practice.
The CPA shall be subject to review and renewal at least every two (2) years, and a current copy shall be kept at the Pharmacist's practice site.
- The Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration, 1 authority clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- 247 CMR 16.00regulation
Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy regulation on collaborative drug therapy management, implementing M.G.L. c. 112, §§ 24B1/2–24B3/4.
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
Percentage set by agreement · As needed
No periodic percentage-based chart review is codified. Instead, each prescriptive action taken under the CPA (initiating, modifying, or discontinuing therapy) must be documented and the supervising physician notified within 24 hours (247 CMR 16.03).
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
community-pharmacy CDTM: Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
Limited to 9 enumerated chronic conditions (asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, CHF, HIV/AIDS, osteoporosis, and identified comorbidities); may extend existing therapy up to two additional 30-day periods, and administer vaccines. Schedule II–V controlled substances are explicitly excluded; only Schedule VI (non-controlled) prescribing is authorized (247 CMR 16.03).
hospital/long-term-care/hospice/ambulatory-clinic CDTM (as opposed to community pharmacy): Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
247 CMR 16.02 requires a pharmacist with prescriptive authority under any CDTM setting to maintain controlled-substance registration, which suggests institutional CDTM scope may reach controlled substances more broadly than the community-pharmacy tier — this was not confirmed from primary text in this research pass; treat controlledSubstancesAllowed here as the conservative, unconfirmed default rather than a settled 'no.'
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement is generally understood to apply to MA pharmacy registration (M.G.L. c. 112, §39 et seq.) — a licensed pharmacist must retain professional control over dispensing, but the exact statutory ownership-control mechanism was not independently re-verified against current text in this research pass.
Materially more permissive than the M.G.L. c. 156A professional-corporation regime governing PA/NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS/RN above, consistent with the pattern seen in every other state on file.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
About Massachusetts's rules
Full practice authority (Acts 2020, c. 260, §36; 244 CMR 4.00) let NPs, PMHNPs, and CNMs practice independently in MA — CNMs immediately, NPs/PMHNPs after a Board-attested transition (244 CMR 4.07). PAs and CRNAs have no independent-practice pathway. MA's professional-corporation ownership rules (M.G.L. c. 156A) are notably strict; this file could not independently re-verify APRN/PA-specific PLLC eligibility this pass — treat CPOM entries as open items.
Other clinicians in Massachusetts: see the state overview.