Physician duties · CNM · Colorado
Signing for a Certified Nurse-Midwife in Colorado: what the physician takes on
No agreement is required, so the terms are whatever you both negotiate. Certified Nurse-Midwives practice independently in Colorado, so any agreement is voluntary.
Certified nurse midwives (distinct from Colorado's separately licensed, non-nurse Direct-Entry Midwife — out of scope here) practice under the same full-independence APRN framework as `np`. SB23-167 (2023) moved certified-midwife regulation to the Board of Nursing; freestanding-birth-center facility rules (implementing 6 CCR 1011-1, Ch. 22) may add facility-level requirements beyond this entry — not independently verified.
What you take on as the physician
The rules the physician relationship has to follow. Each fact comes from the statute or board rule listed under sources.
Proximity
No proximity requirement
Same as `np` — no codified proximity/reachability rule beyond the general § 12-255-111(5) safe-consultation-mechanism standard.
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
Certified midwives (a related but distinct credential from CNM under Colorado's registry) share this same § 12-255-112 pathway — see 3 CCR 716-1.29 for the certified-midwife-specific prescriptive-authority rule, not independently reviewed in full in this pass.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — identical to `np`: no supervising or collaborating physician relationship of any kind is required for CNM clinical practice.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Same as the general `np` entry — CNMs are an APRN role under § 12-255-111(2), so the same § 12-255-104/-111 analysis applies. This doesn't change based on practice setting (office vs. freestanding birth center).
This ownership analysis does not extend to any service outside this provider's own APRN scope (e.g., delegated medical-aesthetic procedures — see Colorado Medical Board Rule 800, 3 CCR 713-30), which stays physician-controlled regardless of the APRN's own practice-entity ownership.
Legal sources for these rules (3)
- C.R.S. §§ 12-255-104, 12-255-111, 12-255-112(4)(a.5), (4)(b)(V) — CNM-specific prescriptive-authority tracksecondary
- SB23-167 (2023) — Board of Nursing Regulate Certified Midwives
- 6 CCR 1011-1, Ch. 22 — Birthing Centers (facility-level rules, not independently verified in full in this pass)
What physicians charge for this role
Typical monthly compensation in Colorado
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Certified Nurse-Midwife. Standard-tier state.
About Colorado's rules
Colorado is a full-practice-authority state for all five APRN roles (NP/PMHNP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) — no physician agreement is ever required to practice. APRNs instead face a 750-hour prescribing mentorship (not necessarily physician-led) before 'full' (vs. 'provisional') prescriptive authority — a credentialing gate, not a supervision relationship. PAs moved from physician 'supervision' to an hours-gated 'collaborative agreement' under SB23-083 (2023) — not 'HB23-1214,' which could not be located and appears to be a misattribution. Colorado licenses estheticians; it has not deregulated the profession.
Other clinicians in Colorado: see the state overview.