PA · Oregon
Supervision Agreement for Physician Assistants in Oregon
Yes, a written supervising-physician agreement is required. Oregon calls it a Collaboration Agreement.
A PA collaboration agreement is required regardless of experience, but ORS 677.495(2) expressly provides it 'does not assign supervisory responsibility to, or represent acceptance of legal responsibility by,' the physician — collaboration means consultation or referral, not oversight.
Independent practice requires: ≥2,000 hours of post-graduate PA practice experience removes the statutory minimum-monthly-collaboration-hours requirement (ORS 677.510(3)); below 2,000 hours, the written collaboration agreement must specify minimum monthly collaboration hours, both in-person and via technology.
What the supervision must look like
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)
No mile/minute radius or on-site requirement is codified; below 2,000 post-graduate hours the collaboration agreement must set minimum monthly collaboration hours 'both in-person and by use of technology' (ORS 677.510(3)).
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
PA with fewer than 2,000 post-graduate practice hours: Monthly
The agreement must state a minimum number of monthly collaboration hours; the statute does not fix the number itself, leaving it to the agreement (ORS 677.510(3)(d)).
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Prescriptive authority is not gated by a separate agreement beyond the general collaboration agreement — it flows from the PA license itself once collaboration requirements (if any, by hours) are met.
Written agreement
Required
A written collaboration agreement is always required, but it is explicitly non-supervisory (ORS 677.495(2)) — the physician assumes no legal responsibility for the PA's practice by signing it.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Licensee-only ownership required — Professional corporation under ORS 58.376 — physicians, PAs, and NPs may jointly hold all voting shares and board seats (no physician-only majority requirement, unlike the default physician-only PC under ORS 58.375). A PA may also elect the stricter ORS 58.375 physician-majority structure if the corporation was formed under it.
ORS 58.376(3)-(4) bars any non-licensee employee/owner, and any licensee-owner outside their own scope, from directing or controlling another licensee's professional judgment — a real constraint on MSO structures even though joint PA/NP/physician ownership itself is permitted.
Legal sources for these rules (5)
- ORS 677.495 — Definitions (collaboration, collaboration agreement)secondary
- ORS 677.510 — Collaboration requirement, agreement contents, 2,000-hour threshold (as amended by H.B. 4010, eff. June 6, 2024)secondary
- ORS 677.511 — Physician assistant authority to prescribe and dispensesecondary
- ORS 677.515 — Scope of PA medical services, controlled-substance prescribingsecondary
- ORS 58.376 — Professional corporations: physician/PA/NP joint ownershipsecondary
What a supervising physician costs here
Typical monthly cost in Oregon
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Physician Assistant. Standard-tier state.
About Oregon's rules
Oregon has no physician-supervision requirement for NP/CNS/CRNA and replaced PA 'supervision' with a non-supervisory 'collaboration agreement' (ORS 677.495-677.525, recodified by H.B. 4010, eff. June 6, 2024). CNM and PMHNP are population foci under the single NP license (OAR 851-050-0005), not separate license categories. CRNA/CNS entity co-ownership with physicians is unconfirmed — ORS 58.376 names only physicians, PAs, and NPs.
Other clinicians in Oregon: see the state overview.