Collaborative Practice Agreement · PA
Wisconsin Written Collaborative Agreement for Physician Assistants
Required. The Written Collaborative Agreement is the written instrument Wisconsin law names for a Physician Assistant working with a physician. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Wisconsin has no experience/hours-based independent-practice pathway for PAs — a written collaborative agreement with a physician (or, for nonsurgical services, a podiatrist) under Wis. Stat. § 448.975(2) is required for the PA's entire career, unaffected by the APRN Modernization Act (which applies only to nursing, not PAs).
What a Wisconsin Written Collaborative Agreement must contain
Governed by the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board and the Wisconsin Pharmacy Examining Board. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
The Physician Assistant ("PA") shall maintain, and produce to the Wisconsin Physician Assistant Affiliated Credentialing Board upon request, either evidence that the Physician is primarily responsible for the overall direction and management of the Physician Assistant's professional activities and the medical appropriateness of the services the Physician Assistant provides, or a written collaborative agreement with the Physician, as provided under Wis. Stat. § 448.975. Wisconsin law does not fix a numerical limit on the number of Physician Assistants with whom a physician may collaborate.
If the Physician becomes unavailable to collaborate with the Physician Assistant, the Physician Assistant shall notify the Wisconsin Physician Assistant Affiliated Credentialing Board within three (3) business days, submit an interim written collaborative agreement, and attest to an active search for a replacement collaborating physician.
- The Written Collaborative Agreement on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
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
Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
The collaborating physician must be 'primarily responsible for the overall direction and management' of the PA's activities and ensure services are medically appropriate; no on-site or mile/minute standard is codified.
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
Separate prescribing terms required · controlled substances permitted
Prescriptive scope is set by the collaborative agreement under § 448.975; no schedule-specific numeric limit was located in statute for PAs specifically.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Service Corporation under Wis. Stat. ch. 180, subch. XIX (§§ 180.1901-180.1921) — Wisconsin's corporate-practice-of-medicine doctrine requires physicians to practice through a Service Corporation (not an ordinary LLC/LLP); shareholders/directors/officers must be licensed in the same field or be a 'health care professional' generally, which appears to permit multi-discipline ownership including PAs alongside physicians.
A non-physician/non-nurse-anesthetist shareholder with authority to provide services NOT under physician/CRNA direction must independently carry malpractice coverage meeting § 655.23(4) minimums (§ 180.1911) — relevant if a PA holds shares while practicing more autonomously.
About Wisconsin's rules
The APRN Modernization Act (2025 Act 17) took effect September 1, 2026 — days before this data's last-verified date — replacing permanent NP/CRNA/CNS collaborative arrangements with a 3,840-hour/24-month transition to independent practice; CNMs are auto-licensed with NO such threshold. Given how recent this is, verify current DSPS/Board of Nursing implementation guidance before relying on transition-period details below.
Other clinicians in Wisconsin: see the state overview.