Physician duties · CNM · Iowa
Signing for a Certified Nurse-Midwife in Iowa: what the physician takes on
No agreement is required, so the terms are whatever you both negotiate. Certified Nurse-Midwives practice independently in Iowa, so any agreement is voluntary.
Iowa licenses CNMs as ARNPs with the same fully independent status as NP/CRNA/CNS (Iowa Admin. Code 655—7.4) — no collaborative-agreement requirement.
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
No supervising-physician relationship required for clinical practice (Iowa Admin. Code 655—7.4).
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
Independent prescriptive authority once DEA/Board of Pharmacy registered, no agreement-based restriction.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional for clinical practice — same as the general `np` entry.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional corporation under Iowa Code Ch. 496C, or PLLC, owned by nursing licensees.
Legal sources for these rules (1)
What physicians charge for this role
Typical monthly compensation in Iowa
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Certified Nurse-Midwife. Standard-tier state.
About Iowa's rules
Iowa APRNs (NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS) may practice, diagnose, and independently prescribe (including controlled substances, with DEA/Board of Pharmacy registration) with no collaborative agreement required by the Board of Nursing — a voluntary agreement is permitted but optional. PAs remain supervised_only under a 5-PA-per-physician cap (Iowa Code Ch. 148C).
Other clinicians in Iowa: see the state overview.