Physician duties · PA · New York
Signing for a Physician Assistant in New York: what the physician takes on
The agreement is mandatory for the clinician, which makes its duties mandatory for you. New York does not name a specific instrument.
No independent-practice pathway exists — supervision (not a 'practice agreement') is required for the life of the PA's practice. A 2024 reform (eff. Feb. 2025) raised, not removed, the supervision ratio; a pending bill (S7981/A7988) to create a 6,000-hour independence pathway remains stuck in committee as of this research.
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
Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
Educ. Law §6542: supervision 'shall not be construed as necessarily requiring the physical presence of the supervising physician at the time and place where such services are performed' — no mileage/radius or on-site standard codified.
Supervision ratio
private practice: Up to 6 at a time
Educ. Law §6542, as amended by A.8378-A/S.9038-A (signed Dec. 2024, eff. Feb. 22, 2025) — raised from a prior 1:4 cap. Hospitals are entirely exempt from any numerical cap: 'nothing in this article shall prohibit a hospital from employing physician assistants' under a hospital-designated supervising physician.
NYS Dept. of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) facilities: Up to 8 at a time
Same Dec. 2024/Feb. 2025 amendment raised the DOCCS-specific cap from 1:6 to 1:8.
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
PAs may obtain their own individual DEA registration as 'mid-level practitioners.'
Written agreement
Required
Unconditional — 'supervision' under Educ. Law Article 131-B is the physician's ongoing legal responsibility for the PA, not a filed practice-agreement document comparable to the NP model. No PA-specific written-agreement form analogous to the NP's was found.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — New York has one of the strictest corporate-practice-of-medicine regimes in the country. A medical-services PLLC's members must ALL be licensed under Educ. Law Article 131 (Medicine) — N.Y. LLC Law §1203, confirmed directly against statute text; the parallel professional-service-corporation framework (Bus. Corp. Law §1503, who may organize; §1507, share issuance restricted to licensed practitioners of the authorized profession; §1506, corporation restricted to the services it was incorporated for — all three read directly and confirmed non-conflicting) works the same way. PAs are licensed under the separate Article 131-B, so — by the same logic confirmed for RNs (Article 139) below — a PA cannot be a member/owner of a medical-services PLLC/PC; PAs practice as employees of a physician-owned entity, not owners.
Legal sources for these rules (6)
- N.Y. Educ. Law §§ 6541, 6542 (Article 131-B)
- A.8378-A/S.9038-A (2024) — raised PA supervision ratios, eff. 2/22/2025
- NYSED Office of the Professions — Article 131-B summary
- health.ny.gov — Physician Assistant reference
- S7981/A7988 (2025-26 session) — pending 6,000-hour PA independence pathway, not enacted
- 10 NYCRR § 94.2 — Supervision and scope of duties (referenced, not independently fetched — see module docstring)
What physicians charge for this role
Typical monthly compensation in New York
$550 – $850
Estimate for one Physician Assistant. This state's rules add a restrictive-tier premium.
About New York's rules
New York combines an unusually strict general corporate-practice-of-medicine regime (physician/same-profession-only PC/PLLC ownership) with two notable exceptions: pharmacy ownership is NOT restricted to pharmacists (Educ. Law §6808), and midwifery (CNM) is its own fully independent practice act (Art. 140), unlike the physician-collaboration model governing NP/PMHNP. CRNA has no dedicated practice statute at all — governed only by DOH facility regulation. NP/PMHNP independence (≥3,600 hours) is a repeatedly-extended sunset provision (currently through July 1, 2030), not permanent law.
Other clinicians in New York: see the state overview.