Collaborative Practice Agreement · NP

Minnesota Collaborative Agreement for Nurse Practitioners

Recognized but not required in every case. The Collaborative Agreement is the written instrument Minnesota law names for a Nurse Practitioner working with a physician. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.

Practice authorityIndependent practice
Written agreementNo agreement required
What Minnesota calls itCollaborative Agreement
Governing boardMinnesota Board of Nursing and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familyCollaborative Practice
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

Full practice authority since 2015 for the ongoing relationship; the remaining 2,080-hour postgraduate collaborative-agreement gate (§ 148.211, subd. 1c) was repealed effective August 1, 2026 (H.F. 1794) — already in force as of this writing, so no agreement is required at any point.

What a Minnesota Collaborative Agreement must contain

Governed by the Minnesota Board of Nursing and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.

  1. Until the Nurse Practitioner completes two thousand eighty (2,080) hours of practice within a collaborative agreement, in a hospital or integrated clinical setting, with the Physician or with an experienced advanced practice registered nurse, as required by Minn. Stat. § 148.211, subd. 1c, the Nurse Practitioner shall practice pursuant to that collaborative agreement. Once the Nurse Practitioner completes those hours and submits written evidence of completion to the Minnesota Board of Nursing, no collaborative agreement is required for independent diagnosis, treatment, or prescribing, including of controlled substances with a DEA registration.

    Source: Minn. Stat. § 148.211, subd. 1c

  2. The collaborative agreement shall describe the working relationship between the Physician and the Nurse Practitioner, the scope of collaboration for managing patient care, the practice location and patient population, referral and communication protocols, and the Nurse Practitioner's prescribing scope. The agreement need not be filed with the Minnesota Board of Nursing but shall be kept at the practice site and produced to the Board upon request.

  3. The Collaborative Agreement on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.

Statutes and rules cited

  1. Minn. Stat. § 148.211, subd. 1cstatute

    2,080-hour postgraduate collaborative-practice requirement for nurse practitioners and clinical nurse specialists before independent practice.

  2. Minn. Stat. § 147A.09statute

    Physician assistant practice-agreement requirement and annual review by a physician with knowledge of the PA's practice.

  3. Minn. R. 6310.3100regulation

    Board of Nursing continuing education hour requirements for license renewal.

  4. Minn. Stat. § 151.01, subd. 27statute

    Definition of pharmacist collaborative practice and collaborative practice agreement, authorizing a pharmacist to initiate, manage, and modify drug therapy under a written agreement with a practitioner.

  5. Minn. Stat. § 151.37statute

    Practitioners who may enter a collaborative practice agreement with a pharmacist, and pharmacist protocol/documentation obligations when initiating, managing, modifying, or discontinuing drug therapy.

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 · controlled substances permitted

§ 148.235, subd. 7a authorizes APRNs to prescribe/administer/dispense legend and controlled substances and order durable medical devices; subd. 7b requires individual DEA registration filed with the Board. No schedule-specific restriction found in the subdivisions reviewed.

Written agreement

Not required

Unconditional as of August 1, 2026 — before that date a collaborative agreement was required only during an initial 2,080-hour postgraduate period, never for ongoing practice; that gate is now repealed entirely.

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Licensee-only ownership required — Professional firm under Minn. Stat. ch. 319B — NP practice rides on the 'registered nursing' eligible-owner category (§ 319B.02, subd. 19, citing §§ 148.171-148.285, which includes APRN licensure). No physician co-owner is required.

The exact 319B subdivision governing cross-profession co-ownership mechanics was not independently confirmed this research pass.

Legal sources for these rules (4)
How the relationship works day to day
Who has to be where, how often you meet, and what the physician costs: Nurse Practitioner in Minnesota on collaborativeagreement.com.

About Minnesota's rules

H.F. 1794 repealed the NP/CNS 2,080-hour postgraduate collaborative-agreement rule (Minn. Stat. § 148.211, subd. 1c) effective August 1, 2026 — already in force. PA remains CONDITIONAL under a separate, still-active 2,080-hour rule (§ 147A.02(c)); 2025 reform bills (H.F. 89/S.F. 1083) to loosen it are pending, not confirmed enacted.

Other clinicians in Minnesota: see the state overview.