Physician duties · PMHNP · Iowa
Signing for a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner in Iowa: what the physician takes on
No agreement is required, so the terms are whatever you both negotiate. Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners practice independently in Iowa, so any agreement is voluntary.
Iowa's ARNP framework doesn't carve out a separate rule for psychiatric-mental-health NPs — PMHNPs follow the same fully independent regime as any other ARNP (Iowa Admin. Code 655—7.4). This entry exists for its own page/URL/calculator weight, not a legal distinction.
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 standard as general ARNPs — no physician relationship required (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
Same statutory scope as general ARNPs; psychiatric prescribing in practice skews toward Schedule II stimulants and Schedule IV benzodiazepines more heavily — not a different legal limit, reflected in calculatorWeights rather than this rule.
Written agreement
Not required
Unconditional — same as the general `np` entry.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Same as the general `np` entry — 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 Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. 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.