Protocol · PharmD · Maine
Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in Maine
Required. Maine law names the instrument a CDTM Agreement, 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.
Represents Maine's optional pharmacist-practitioner Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) agreement tier under 32 M.R.S. § 13843, not ordinary pharmacist licensure — base dispensing needs no agreement. The collaborating practitioner supervises or provides direct consultation throughout; the pharmacist's lab-result evaluation may not include a diagnostic component.
What a Maine CDTM Agreement must contain
Governed by the Maine Board of Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the CDTM Agreement must satisfy.
The Pharmacist may practice collaborative drug therapy management ("CDTM") with the Physician pursuant to a written, signed agreement satisfying 32 M.R.S. § 13843. The agreement shall identify the Parties and its effective dates, include a termination clause allowing either Party to cancel by written notice, state the practice site, describe the Pharmacist's qualifications, describe in detail the diseases, drugs, or drug categories covered, establish a procedure for referring patients back to the Physician, establish a procedure for reviewing and revising the agreement, establish a plan for measuring patient outcomes, and confirm the Pharmacist's liability insurance and compliance with HIPAA.
Source: 32 M.R.S. § 13843
For the first three (3) months under the agreement, the Pharmacist is limited to monitoring drug therapy. After that period, the Parties may amend the agreement to authorize the Pharmacist to initiate, administer, monitor, modify, and discontinue drug therapy within the diseases, drugs, and drug categories the agreement describes; the Pharmacist has no authority under this Agreement to initiate, modify, or discontinue drug therapy outside the specific terms of the then-current written CDTM agreement. A copy of the agreement shall be submitted to the Maine Board of Pharmacy and to the Physician's licensing board before the collaborative practice commences, and any amendment shall be resubmitted before it takes effect.
Source: 32 M.R.S. § 13843
- The CDTM Agreement also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration and 1 authority clauses, authored in the document itself.
Statutes and rules these clauses cite
- 32 M.R.S. § 13843statute
Mandatory content of a collaborative drug therapy management agreement, the initial 3-month monitoring-only period, and the requirement to submit the agreement to the Board of Pharmacy and the prescriber's licensing board before commencement.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the CDTM Agreement has to carry, from Maine'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
Under a CDTM agreement the pharmacist initiates, administers, monitors, modifies and discontinues drug therapy as authorized by the practitioner (32 M.R.S. § 13702-A). This is delegated drug-therapy management, not independent DEA-registered controlled-substance prescribing, so controlled substances are shown as not allowed; whether CDTM terms may extend to them is not settled.
Written agreement
Required
Only required if the pharmacist and a practitioner elect to engage in collaborative drug therapy management — a pharmacist's base license and general dispensing authority need no such agreement (32 M.R.S. §§ 13842-13843).
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement identified for Maine pharmacy permits
Materially more permissive than the physician/APRN professional-entity questions above, if confirmed.
Sources for the supervision rules (4)
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.