Protocol · PA · Alaska
Practice Protocol for Physician Assistants in Alaska
Required. Alaska law names the instrument a Collaborative Plan, and the clinical protocol is the content that instrument carries. Below: the board that governs it, what it must contain, and the terms it has to carry.
Reflects the currently codified 12 AAC 40 and AS 08.64, which require a board-approved collaborative plan with no hours-based sunset. SB 89 (2026) would create a conditional pathway to reduced-agreement collaboration after 4,000 hours, reported as effective around Sept. 16, 2026; check the enrolled text before that date.
What an Alaska Collaborative Plan must contain
Governed by the Alaska State Medical Board and the Alaska Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Collaborative Plan must satisfy.
The Physician Assistant ("PA") shall not practice without a collaborative plan, on a form provided by the Alaska State Medical Board, naming the Physician as primary collaborating physician, identifying the Physician's license number and specialty, naming at least one alternate collaborating physician, and stating the Physician Assistant's beginning date of employment.
The Physician shall establish a periodic method of assessing the Physician Assistant's practice, including personal observation and evaluation of the Physician Assistant's clinical skills and ongoing assessment of the Physician Assistant's practice. Effective September 16, 2026, Alaska law no longer requires the Physician to be physically present with the Physician Assistant, regardless of geographic location. Alaska law does not fix a numerical limit on the number of Physician Assistants with whom a physician may collaborate.
- The Collaborative Plan also carries 1 scope, 1 education and 1 registration clauses, authored in the document itself.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Collaborative Plan has to carry, from Alaska's supervision rules.
Proximity
Available remotely (no on-site requirement)
Alaska State Medical Board guidance requires a 'periodic method of assessment' (personal observation/evaluation, continuing instruction) rather than a fixed radius; PAs in remote areas may practice without the collaborating physician physically present so long as direct telephonic/electronic/video access exists (secondary-sourced summary of AS 08.64/board guidance).
Supervision ratio
Up to 4 at a time
Commonly cited as 12 AAC 40.430.
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
A separate prescriptive-authority application/approval is required specifically for controlled substances (Board form med0017), distinct from the base collaborative plan. No PA-specific Schedule II day-supply cap was found (contrast with AK's explicit APRN opioid rule). Alaska PDMP (AS 17.30.200) check-in applies.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Alaska Professional Corporation Act (AS 10.45) requires all shareholders/directors/incorporators of a professional corporation to hold licenses in the profession the PC is organized to practice — a medical PC's owners must be licensed physicians, not PAs or laypeople.
Sources for the supervision rules (4)
- AS 08.64 — Alaska Medical Board (Physician Assistants)
- 12 AAC 40 — Physician Assistant Licensure and Practice
- Alaska State Medical Board — PA Scope of Practice Guidelines
- SB 89 (2026) — PA Scope of Practice Modernization (secondary summary)
About Alaska's rules
All four APRN roles (NP, CRNA, CNM, CNS) share one statutory framework (AS 08.68.850, 12 AAC 44) with FULL independent practice and no collaborative agreement. PA law is mid-transition: SB 89 would add a 4,000-hour conditional pathway effective ~Sept. 16, 2026, but its enrolled text couldn't be verified — current codified law (below) still requires a standing collaborative plan with no experience-based exit.
Other clinicians in Alaska: see the state overview.