Signing for a Nurse Practitioner in Colorado: what the physician takes on

No proximity requirement

No proximity/reachability standard applies — NP practice requires no supervising or collaborating physician at all. § 12-255-111(5) requires only 'a safe mechanism for consultation or collaboration with a physician or, when appropriate, referral to a physician' — a professional-judgment standard the NP applies to their own practice, not an externally imposed distance/availability rule.

Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted

The mentor need not be a physician — this is a one-time credentialing/experience requirement, not an ongoing supervision relationship, and it ends once the 750 hours are logged (the APRN otherwise continues practicing under provisional authority up to the 3-year mark).

Non-licensee ownership permitted — No Colorado statute requires physician ownership of an entity delivering APRN-scope care — C.R.S. § 12-240-138's physician/PA-shareholder mandate is scoped to entities practicing 'medicine' under the Medical Practice Act; APRN practice is licensed and regulated separately under the Nurse Practice Act (Title 12, Art. 255) and isn't 'the practice of medicine.' Multiple secondary CPOM-guide sources read this as APRNs having materially more ownership flexibility than physicians/PAs — no primary statute or Board of Nursing rule was found either confirming or denying this for APRN entities specifically. Moderate confidence; flag as an inference rather than a codified rule if load-bearing.

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.