Physician duties · PA · Maine
Signing for a Physician Assistant in Maine: what the physician takes on
The agreement is mandatory for the clinician, which makes its duties mandatory for you. Maine calls the instrument a Collaborative Agreement.
Below 4,000 hours, a PA must work under a collaborative agreement with an active physician describing scope of practice (32 M.R.S. § 2594-F). At/above 4,000 hours, a PA may be the principal clinical provider in a practice with no physician partner, but still needs a lighter 'practice agreement' addressing physician availability for collaboration/consultation — not full independence from any agreement at all.
Independent practice requires: ≥4,000 hours of documented clinical practice (verified to the Board of Licensure in Medicine).
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
under 4,000 hours of clinical practice (collaborative agreement): Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
32 M.R.S. § 2594-F states collaboration 'does not require the physical presence of the physician' and may occur through electronic means. No mile/minute radius is codified. A PA in a physician group practice or a facility with its own credentialing/privileging system may use that system in lieu of a collaborative agreement.
4,000+ hours of clinical practice (practice agreement, principal clinical provider): Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
The practice agreement need only state that a physician 'will be available to the physician assistant for collaboration or consultation' — no on-site requirement or fixed radius.
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
Separate prescribing terms required · controlled substances permitted
PAs may prescribe controlled substances within the scope of the collaborative/practice agreement; requires the PA's own DEA registration. Exact schedule-level restrictions (e.g. a Schedule II day-supply cap) were not independently confirmed in this pass.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Whether an experienced (≥4,000-hour) PA serving as principal clinical provider has an independent practice-entity ownership pathway under Maine's professional-corporation statutes was not confirmed in this pass — treat as an open item rather than a settled fact.
This ownership question is legally distinct from the clinical collaborative/practice agreement above.
Legal sources for these rules (3)
- 32 M.R.S. § 2594-F — Physician Assistant collaborative/practice agreementssecondary
- 32 M.R.S. § 3270-G — Collaborative agreement approval by the Board of Licensure in Medicine
- P.L. 2019, ch. 627 — An Act To Improve Access to Physician Assistant Care
What physicians charge for this role
Typical monthly compensation in Maine
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Physician Assistant. Standard-tier state.
About Maine's rules
Maine's provider categories follow different independence models: NPs graduate to full practice after 24 months of registered (not written-agreement) supervision; PAs graduate after 4,000 documented clinical hours but still need a lighter 'practice agreement' afterward; CNMs/CNSs appear independent from initial licensure; and CRNAs remain physician/dentist-accountable except in critical-access/rural hospitals. Do not assume a single APRN framework applies uniformly.
Other clinicians in Maine: see the state overview.