Practice Protocol
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Protocol · PharmD · Arizona

Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in Arizona

Required. Arizona law names the instrument a Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA), 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.

Practice authoritySupervision required
Written agreementAgreement required
What Arizona calls itCollaborative Practice Agreement (CPA)
Governing boardArizona State Board of Pharmacy
Agreement familyCollaborative Practice
Research date2026-09-03 · clauses 2026-09-03

Represents Arizona's Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) tier (A.R.S. § 32-1970), not ordinary dispensing licensure. CPA scope is permanently agreement-dependent with no independence pathway; pharmacist must follow the provider's written guidelines and may not deviate from them.

What an Arizona Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) must contain

Governed by the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) must satisfy.

  1. The Pharmacist shall practice pursuant to a written Collaborative Practice Agreement ("CPA") with the Physician to initiate, monitor, and modify drug therapy or to provide disease management assistance, as authorized under A.R.S. § 32-1970. The CPA applies only to a patient with whom the Physician has a previously established provider-patient relationship.

    Source: A.R.S. § 32-1970

  2. No Arizona State Board of Pharmacy pre-approval or advance filing of the CPA is required; the Pharmacist shall instead maintain a copy of the CPA and make it available to the Board upon request.

  3. The Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration and 1 authority clauses, authored in the document itself.

Statutes and rules these clauses cite

  1. A.R.S. § 32-1970statute

    Authorizes a collaborative practice agreement between a pharmacist and a provider with prescriptive authority to initiate, monitor, and modify drug therapy or provide disease management assistance; sets required agreement contents.

Terms it has to carry

Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Collaborative Practice Agreement (CPA) has to carry, from Arizona's supervision rules.

Proximity

Not codified — left to the agreement

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 · no controlled-substance authority

The statute itself does not address controlled-substance schedules; Board of Pharmacy rules in A.A.C. Title 4, Ch. 23 may govern this. Treat the controlled-substances entry as unsettled rather than as a denial.

Written agreement

Required

Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)

Non-licensee ownership permitted — Pharmacy permit and ownership rules in A.A.C. Title 4, Ch. 23

Sources for the supervision rules (1)
How the relationship works day to day
Who has to be where, how often you meet, and what the physician costs: Pharmacist in Arizona on collaborativeagreement.com.

About Arizona's rules

Arizona has no explicit statutory CPOM ban; existing doctrine comes only from two optometry cases never applied to physician/PA ownership, making MSO tolerance a reasonable inference rather than a confirmed rule. NP/CNM/PMHNP have FULL practice authority with no collaborative agreement. PA's 2024 reform (A.R.S. Title 32 Ch. 25) removes the written agreement at 8,000 hours but still requires a designated collaborating physician/entity.

Other clinicians in Arizona: see the state overview.