Practice Agreement · PA
Physician Assistant Practice Agreement in Louisiana
Louisiana law does not require a Physician Assistant to hold a named agreement with a physician. Practices still use one to define the working relationship; here is what it covers and what the state does require.
No independent-practice pathway exists for PAs in Louisiana; supervision must be continuous for as long as the PA practices (R.S. 37:1360.28). The only carve-out is life-threatening emergencies and man-made/natural disaster relief efforts (R.S. 37:1360.31), where a PA may act without physician authorization.
What a Physician Assistant practice agreement covers in Louisiana
Governed by the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners and the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.
The Physician Assistant ("PA") shall practice at the direction of, and under the supervision of, the Physician, who shall register as a supervising physician with the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners, as required by La. R.S. 37:1360.21 et seq. The level and method of supervision shall be documented, reviewed annually, and shall reflect the acuity of patients seen and the complexity of procedures performed.
A supervising physician may serve as primary supervising physician for up to eight (8) Physician Assistants at one time, as provided under Louisiana law.
- The agreement on file also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration clauses, generated in the document itself.
Statutes and rules cited
- Louisiana Board of Pharmacyboard guidance
State board administering the Louisiana Pharmacy Practice Act (La. R.S. 37:1161 et seq.) and its Collaborative Drug Therapy Management rules (La. Admin. Code tit. 46, Pt. LIII, Ch. 5).
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)
Supervision must be continuous but is not construed as requiring the physical presence of the supervising physician at the time and place services are rendered; physician and PA must be able to contact each other by telephone or other telecommunication (R.S. 37:1360.28(A)).
Supervision ratio
Up to 8 at a time
A supervising physician may be the primary supervising physician for up to 8 PAs at one time (R.S. 37:1360.29), increased from a prior cap of 4 by a subsequent amendment (secondary-sourced as 'Act 475' — exact session year not independently confirmed in this pass).
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Annually
The level and method of supervision must be documented and reviewed at least annually and reflect patient-care acuity (R.S. 37:1360.28(B)); the written supervision agreement itself must also be updated annually and kept on file at the practice site, available to the board on request.
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Prescriptive authority is delegated within the general supervision agreement rather than requiring its own separate document.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Corporation under La. R.S. 12:901 et seq. — Louisiana's Professional Corporation Law generally restricts shares in a medical PC to persons licensed to render that same professional service; Louisiana statute does not enumerate PAs as eligible independent owners of a physician-services PC.
This is a general inference from Louisiana's Professional Corporation Law framework, not a PA-specific holding — treat as an open item, not a settled fact.
Legal sources for these rules (4)
- La. Rev. Stat. § 37:1360.28 — Supervision of Physician Assistantssecondary
- La. Rev. Stat. § 37:1360.29 — Supervising Physician Qualifications and Registrationsecondary
- La. Rev. Stat. § 37:1360.31 — Services Performed by Physician Assistantssecondary
- AAPA — Louisiana Enacts Improvements to PA Practice Laws (PA-to-physician ratio increase)secondary
About Louisiana's rules
Louisiana remains a 'reduced practice' state for NPs — no SAVE Act-style full-practice-authority reform has passed. LA Admin. Code tit. 46 §7911.A.5 references an hours-based exemption from the CPA requirement for NP/CNM/CNS, but secondary sources give conflicting hour figures (1,000 vs. 2,080) and this pass could not confirm the exact threshold or resulting scope — verify directly with LSBN before relying on it.
Other clinicians in Louisiana: see the state overview.