Can a physician assistant inject or prescribe in Pennsylvania?
Who treats · part of The Practice Perimeter
Short answer
The cited rules do not settle this — the physician delegation rule expressly does not limit physician assistants, leaving them to their own statutes and regulations, which are not among the rules cited here (only CRNP prescriptive authority is set out).
The delegation rule does not restrict a practitioner who is separately licensed or certified from practicing within their own scope, and expressly does not limit certified registered nurse anesthetists, nurse midwives, certified registered nurse practitioners or physician assistants acting under their own statutes and regulations.
49 Pa. Code §18.402 · verified Aug 17, 2026 · regulatory monitoring, not legal advice
The rest of what Pennsylvania says on this
A certified registered nurse practitioner with prescriptive authority approval may prescribe and dispense drugs and give written or oral orders for drugs and other therapeutic or corrective measures only when acting in collaboration with a physician as set out in a prescriptive authority collaborative agreement, and only within the CRNP’s own certified specialty.
49 Pa. Code §21.283(a) · verified Aug 17, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute
The collaborative agreement must be in writing, identify the collaborating physician, the CRNP and at least one substitute physician who will collaborate when the primary one is unavailable, be signed and dated by both, identify the CRNP’s certified specialty, specify the professional liability insurance covering the CRNP, and be reviewed and updated at least once every two years or whenever it changes.
49 Pa. Code §21.285 · verified Aug 17, 2026 · read at Cornell Legal Information Institute
How other states answer this
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- Texas
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- Virginia
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