Physician duties · PA · Mississippi
Signing for a Physician Assistant in Mississippi: what the physician takes on
The agreement is mandatory for the clinician, which makes its duties mandatory for you. Mississippi calls the instrument a Written Practice Protocol.
No independent-practice pathway exists for PAs in Mississippi. New-grad PAs (or PAs new to MS licensure) require ON-SITE physician presence for 120 days/960 hours, reducible if the PA's clinical clerkship was with the same supervising physician (Miss. Admin. Code Part 2615, Ch. 1, Rule 1.7).
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
Within 30 miles
The PA's practice is confined to the supervising physician's primary office/clinic, or any hospital/clinic/facility within 30 miles of that primary office where the supervising physician holds staff privileges (Rule 1.7). Exceptions may be set out in the protocol.
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
10% of charts · Monthly · countersignature required
Supervising physician must review, at least monthly, a randomly selected 10% of charts of patients treated by the PA (histories, exam/test results, diagnoses, orders, meds, treatment), evidenced by signature/initials at the base of the clinic note (Rule 1.7).
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Covered by the same practice protocol required to practice at all — no separate prescribing-specific agreement.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional corporation under Miss. Code Ann. § 79-10-31 — shareholders of a PC rendering medical services must be licensed physicians; PAs may be employees but not owners. Mississippi does not permit multi-discipline PC/PLLC ownership with PAs as co-owners.
Derived from case law (Sears Roebuck v. State Bd. of Optometry, 1952) plus § 79-10-31 and MSBML Policy 3.02 — Mississippi has no standalone CPOM statute.
Legal sources for these rules (3)
- Miss. Code Ann. § 73-26-5 — Physician Assistants
- Mississippi Admin. Code Title 30, Part 2615 — Physician Assistants (Rules 1.5-1.7)
- Miss. Code Ann. § 41-29-125 — Controlled substance registration
What physicians charge for this role
Typical monthly compensation in Mississippi
$650 – $950
Estimate for one Physician Assistant. This state's rules add a restrictive-tier premium.
About Mississippi's rules
Mississippi has no independent-practice pathway for NPs/APRNs — a collaborative relationship plus Board-approved written protocol is required for the life of the license. Multiple 2025-2026 NP full-practice-authority bills (H.B. 813, H.B. 98, S.B. 2178) remain unconfirmed as enacted — re-verify § 73-15-20 each session.
Other clinicians in Mississippi: see the state overview.