Practice Agreement
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Practice Agreement · PA

Vermont Written Practice Agreement for Physician Assistants

Required. The Written Practice Agreement is the written instrument Vermont 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 authoritySupervision required
Written agreementAgreement required
What Vermont calls itWritten Practice Agreement
Governing boardVermont Board of Medical Practice and the Vermont Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familyCollaborative Practice
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

Vermont has no autonomous/independent-practice pathway for PAs based on experience or hours — a PA must maintain a practice agreement with one 'participating physician' throughout their career, per 26 V.S.A. § 1735a, except in narrow settings listed in §§ 1734c(b)/1735a(e) (e.g. certain hospital-employed PAs).

What a Vermont Written Practice Agreement must contain

Governed by the Vermont Board of Medical Practice and the Vermont 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 with the Physician, as required by 26 V.S.A. § 1735a. The Physician shall be accessible for consultation by telephone or electronic means at all times the Physician Assistant is practicing, though physical presence is not required.

  2. Vermont law does not fix a numerical limit on the number of Physician Assistants with whom a physician may enter into a practice agreement; the practice agreement itself may specify the extent of collaboration required with the physician and other health care professionals.

  3. The Written Practice 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 participating physician must be 'accessible for consultation by telephone or electronic means at all times' the PA is practicing (26 V.S.A. § 1735a); 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

Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted

A PA may prescribe, dispense, administer, and procure drugs and medical devices 'to the same extent as a physician'; a PA who prescribes controlled substances must hold federal DEA registration. No schedule-specific numeric limit found in statute. Separately, § 1735a requires the practice agreement to include processes for 'periodic joint evaluation of services delivered,' but codifies no fixed meeting frequency — left to the agreement.

Written agreement

Required

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Licensee-only ownership required — Professional Corporation under 11 V.S.A. ch. 4 (§ 1403 lets licensed physicians hold shares in a PC providing medical and nursing services). As of H.583 (eff. July 1, 2026), a medical practice may only employ physicians/practice medicine if Vermont licensees hold a majority of shares, a majority of directors, and all officer positions except secretary/treasurer, with each licensed owner meeting a 'meaningful ownership' (in-state, substantially engaged) standard. Whether a PA is independently eligible as a PC shareholder alongside a physician was not separately confirmed.

H.583 also adds PE/hedge-fund ownership reporting (to the Green Mountain Care Board, starting March 2027) and a private right of action for providers whose clinical judgment is interfered with by a non-licensee owner.

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 Vermont on collaborativeagreement.com.

About Vermont's rules

H.583 (signed June 15, 2026, eff. July 1, 2026) newly restricts private-equity/hedge-fund control and requires majority physician ownership/governance of medical practices — a major shift from Vermont's historically permissive, no-common-law-CPOM stance. All 4 APRN roles (NP, CRNA, CNM, CNS/PMHNP) share one 2,400-hour/2-year transition-to-practice threshold (26 V.S.A. § 1614) — treat as newly in effect and monitor implementing guidance.

Other clinicians in Vermont: see the state overview.