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Practice Agreement · PA

Physician Assistant Practice Agreement in Rhode Island

Rhode Island 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.

Practice authoritySupervision required
Written agreementNo agreement required
What Rhode Island calls itNo named instrument
Governing boardRhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline and the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familySupervising Physician
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

The 2019 reform (P.L. 2019, ch. 130/131) eliminated written practice agreements and hospital ratio caps, replacing them with a 'collaboration' standard — but a physician must still be 'accessible at all times for consultation' for as long as the PA practices (§ 5-54-2(3)). No experience-based exit from that requirement exists, so this isn't full independence.

What a Physician Assistant practice agreement covers in Rhode Island

Governed by the Rhode Island Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline and the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the agreement must satisfy.

  1. The Physician Assistant ("PA") shall practice in collaboration with the Physician, consulting with or referring to an appropriate physician or other health care professional as the patient's condition, the Physician Assistant's education, competencies, and experience, and the applicable standard of care require. The Physician shall remain accessible for consultation, though no fixed proximity or on-site presence requirement applies.

  2. Rhode Island law does not fix a numerical limit on the number of Physician Assistants with whom a physician may collaborate, and does not require a written supervision agreement to be kept on file with the state.

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

Statutes and rules cited

  1. R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 5-19.2 (Collaborative Pharmacy Practice)statute

    Defines a collaborative practice agreement between a pharmacist with advanced training and a physician, and establishes the collaborative practice committee and Board approval process.

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)

§ 5-54-2(3): 'a physician must be accessible at all times for consultation by the physician assistant.' No mile/minute radius or on-site standard is codified; the degree of collaboration otherwise 'shall be determined by the practice.'

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

Schedule II, III, IV, and V under the RI Uniform Controlled Substances Act (§ 5-54-8); Schedule I is not included.

Written agreement

Not required

No WRITTEN practice agreement is required — § 5-54-8 removed that requirement in 2019. But 'collaboration' isn't optional: an appropriate physician must be accessible at all times, and the degree of collaboration is set by the employer/practice/credentialing system rather than a document the PA and physician negotiate.

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Service Corporation under R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-5.1-1 et seq. — PAs are explicitly listed among the healing-arts licensees (with physicians, dentists, RNs, podiatrists, optometrists, chiropractic physicians, physical therapists, psychologists, and midwives/nurse-midwives) who may jointly organize a multi-service PSC.

Confirm the 2026 bill's status before assuming either the current permissive PSC regime or a stricter CPOM ban applies going forward.

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 Rhode Island on collaborativeagreement.com.

About Rhode Island's rules

RI is a Full Practice Authority state for NP/CNM (R.I. Gen. Laws § 5-34-44) and, since a 2019 reform (§ 5-54-8), no longer requires PAs to have a written practice agreement — 'collaboration' with an always-accessible physician replaced supervision and hospital ratio caps. CRNAs are the exception: RI has NOT taken the Medicare physician-supervision opt-out, and CRNA scope is statutorily bounded to the perioperative period.

Other clinicians in Rhode Island: see the state overview.