Protocol · PharmD · New York
Practice Protocol for Pharmacists in New York
Required. New York law names the instrument a Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Framework, 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.
Two narrow, gated pathways, not general independent prescribing: Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (facility-limited to hospitals/nursing homes with on-site pharmacy — NOT community/retail pharmacy) and immunization administration. NY has NOT enacted broader test-and-treat authority — a 2023-24 bill died in committee; its 2025-26 successor remains pending.
Independent practice requires: Certified under §6801-a Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) — facility-limited to teaching hospitals, general hospitals, and nursing homes with an on-site pharmacy; requires SED-approved credentialing (PharmD/MS + 2 yrs incl. 1 yr clinical, or BS + 3 of last 7 yrs incl. 1 yr clinical) plus residency training or board certification; OR certified as an immunizer (§§6801/6802/6909) with an SED certificate of administration, acting under a patient-specific physician/NP order OR a non-patient-specific statewide Commissioner standing order during public health threats.
What a New York Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Framework must contain
Governed by the New York State Education Department, State Board for Pharmacy. Each numbered item is a statutory requirement the Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Framework must satisfy.
New York's collaborative drug therapy management framework, established under Education Law § 6801-a and 8 NYCRR § 63.10, applies only to a Pharmacist ("Pharmacist") employed by or affiliated with a qualifying teaching hospital, general hospital (including a hospital-based outpatient department), or a nursing home with an on-site pharmacy staffed by a licensed pharmacist, and only when the Pharmacist meets the statute's minimum education and clinical-experience requirements. Outside of such a qualifying facility, New York law does not provide a mechanism for a Physician to delegate drug therapy management authority to a pharmacist, and this Agreement does not purport to create one.
Source: N.Y. Educ. Law § 6801-a
Where the framework applies, the Pharmacist shall practice under a written agreement or protocol with the Physician, addressing a specific disease or associated disease states, consistent with the facility's own policies and procedures.
Source: 8 NYCRR § 63.10; NYSED Collaborative Drug Therapy Management guidance
- The Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Framework also carries 1 scope, 1 education, 1 registration and 1 authority clauses, authored in the document itself.
Statutes and rules these clauses cite
- N.Y. Educ. Law § 6801-astatute
Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Demonstration Program, limited to qualifying teaching/general hospitals and certain nursing homes.
- 8 NYCRR § 63.10; NYSED Collaborative Drug Therapy Management guidanceboard guidance
State Education Department's official page describing the Collaborative Drug Therapy Management program for pharmacists.
Terms it has to carry
Ratio, proximity, chart review, meeting and prescribing terms the Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Framework has to carry, from New York's supervision rules.
Proximity
Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM): On-site presence required
Coded ON_SITE in the narrow sense that §6801-a/8 NYCRR §63.10 require the collaborating physician to practice at the SAME FACILITY as the pharmacist — this is a facility-affiliation requirement, not a real-time physical-presence-during-each-act rule the way a strict on-site standard would be.
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
Separate prescribing terms required · no controlled-substance authority
Neither §6801-a nor 8 NYCRR §63.10 contains an explicit controlled-substance carve-out or restriction — this is a genuine statutory gap, not a confirmed prohibition. Coded False here as the more conservative reading (initiating/adjusting Schedule II-V therapy isn't among CDTM's enumerated adjustment powers absent express authorization), but flag for direct legal confirmation before relying on this.
Written agreement
Required
True for CDTM (written protocol with a specific participating physician at the SAME facility, plus SED certification) and for patient-specific-order immunizations; the outbreak/public-health-threat immunization pathway substitutes a state Commissioner standing order for an individual physician agreement.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Unlike the common assumption that NY restricts pharmacy ownership to licensed pharmacists, §6808 explicitly contemplates non-pharmacist ownership: if the pharmacy's owner isn't a licensed pharmacist, the registration must additionally bear the name of the licensed pharmacist with personal supervision of the pharmacy. The only ownership-linked requirement is a 'good moral character' screen extending to officers/directors and 10%+ stockholders — not a licensure requirement. Operational (not ownership) control requires a pharmacist's 'immediate supervision and management' whenever the pharmacy is open, and no pharmacist may personally supervise more than one pharmacy at a time.
No separate corporate-practice-of-pharmacy statute imposing an ownership restriction was found, despite this being commonly asserted by secondary/law-firm sources characterizing NY's general CPOM strictness as extending to pharmacy — that broader claim appears unsupported by §6808's actual text.
Sources for the supervision rules (7)
- N.Y. Educ. Law § 6801-a — Collaborative Drug Therapy Management Demonstration Program
- 8 NYCRR § 63.10 — CDTM implementing regulationsecondary
- 8 NYCRR § 63.9 — Pharmacist immunization regulationsecondary
- NYSED Office of the Professions — CDTM page
- N.Y. Educ. Law § 6808 — Pharmacy registration/ownership
- NYS DOH — Pharmacists as Immunizers
- A8596/S7839 (2023-24, died in committee) and A2534/S4501 (2025-26, pending) — pharmacist test-and-treat bills, confirming this is NOT current law
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.