PharmD · Massachusetts
Collaborative Drug Therapy Management for Pharmacists in Massachusetts
Yes, a written agreement with a physician is required before you manage drug therapy. Massachusetts calls it a Collaborative Practice Agreement.
Represents MA's Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM) tier (247 CMR 16.00), not base pharmacist licensure. CDTM is permanently physician-agreement-dependent with no independence pathway; community-pharmacy CDTM is limited to 9 enumerated chronic conditions and Schedule VI (non-controlled) drugs only.
What the collaboration must look like
The rules the physician relationship has to follow. Each fact comes from the statute or board rule listed under sources.
Proximity
Not codified — left to the agreement
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Percentage set by agreement · As needed
No periodic percentage-based chart review is codified. Instead, each prescriptive action taken under the CPA (initiating, modifying, or discontinuing therapy) must be documented and the supervising physician notified within 24 hours (247 CMR 16.03).
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
community-pharmacy CDTM: Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
Limited to 9 enumerated chronic conditions (asthma, COPD, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, CHF, HIV/AIDS, osteoporosis, and identified comorbidities); may extend existing therapy up to two additional 30-day periods, and administer vaccines. Schedule II–V controlled substances are explicitly excluded; only Schedule VI (non-controlled) prescribing is authorized (247 CMR 16.03).
hospital/long-term-care/hospice/ambulatory-clinic CDTM (as opposed to community pharmacy): Covered by the practice agreement · no controlled-substance authority
247 CMR 16.02 requires a pharmacist with prescriptive authority under any CDTM setting to maintain controlled-substance registration, which suggests institutional CDTM scope may reach controlled substances more broadly than the community-pharmacy tier; the entry shows the conservative reading.
Written agreement
Required
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — No pharmacist-ownership requirement is generally understood to apply to Massachusetts pharmacy registration (M.G.L. c. 112, § 39 et seq.); a licensed pharmacist must retain professional control over dispensing
Materially more permissive than the M.G.L. c. 156A professional-corporation regime governing PA/NP/CRNA/CNM/CNS/RN above, consistent with the pattern seen in every other state on file.
Sources for the supervision rules (1)
What a collaborating physician costs here
Typical monthly cost in Massachusetts
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Pharmacist. Standard-tier state.
About Massachusetts's rules
Full practice authority (Acts 2020, c. 260, § 36; 244 CMR 4.00) lets NPs, PMHNPs and CNMs practice independently in Massachusetts: CNMs immediately, NPs and PMHNPs after a Board-attested transition (244 CMR 4.07). PAs and CRNAs have no independent-practice pathway. Massachusetts's professional-corporation ownership rules (M.G.L. c. 156A) are notably strict, and APRN and PA entity ownership remains unsettled.
Other clinicians in Massachusetts: see the state overview.