Practice Agreement
Build an agreement

Practice Agreement · PA

Minnesota Written Practice Agreement for Physician Assistants

Required. The Written Practice Agreement is the written instrument Minnesota 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.

Practice authorityConditional independence
Written agreementAgreement required
What Minnesota calls itWritten Practice Agreement
Governing boardMinnesota Board of Medical Practice and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familyCollaborative Practice
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

Pending 2025 bills H.F. 89/S.F. 1083 would loosen this (e.g. allowing collaboration with any U.S.-licensed physician, not just MN-licensed) — introduced, not confirmed enacted; verify current status before relying on this threshold as final.

Independent practice requires: ≥2,080 hours of practice within the context of a collaborative agreement, in a hospital or integrated clinical setting where PAs and physicians work together (§ 147A.02(c)).

What a Minnesota Written Practice Agreement must contain

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

  1. The Physician Assistant ("PA") shall practice pursuant to a written practice agreement reviewed annually by a physician within the same clinic, hospital, or health system who has knowledge of the Physician Assistant's practice, as required by Minn. Stat. § 147A.09. The Physician Assistant may prescribe, including controlled substances, under the Physician Assistant's own qualifications rather than delegated authority from the Physician.

    Source: Minn. Stat. § 147A.09

  2. Minnesota law does not fix a numerical limit on the number of Physician Assistants with whom a physician may enter into a practice agreement, and does not require the reviewing physician to be physically on-site. The practice agreement is not filed with, or pre-approved by, the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice; a document confirming the annual review occurred must be kept at the practice level and made available to the Board upon request.

    Source: Minn. Stat. § 147A.09

  3. The Written Practice 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

Available remotely (no on-site requirement)

The collaborating physician need not be physically present so long as physician and PA can be easily in contact by radio, telephone, or other telecommunication device. No mile/minute radius 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

§ 147A.09, subd. 2(10) authorizes prescribing/administering/dispensing controlled substances under an established practice agreement; no schedule-specific restriction (e.g. a Schedule II day-supply cap) was found in the sections reviewed. Subd. 4 separately requires physician collaboration specifically for spinal-injection/pain-management procedures, narrower than the general practice agreement.

Written agreement

Required

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Licensee-only ownership required — Professional firm under Minn. Stat. ch. 319B (Professional Firms Act) — PAs are an explicitly eligible owner category (§ 319B.02, subd. 19, citing §§ 147A.01-147A.27). Esthetics/cosmetology is not among the listed eligible categories.

Whether 319B permits a firm to combine multiple listed professions (e.g. PA and physician) as co-owners was not independently confirmed this research pass — treat the exact cross-profession co-ownership mechanics as an open item.

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: Physician Assistant 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.