The short answer for Arizona. An NP with full practice authority may perform it independently.
A good faith exam is a clinical evaluation by a licensed provider, before treatment, establishing that the treatment is appropriate for that patient. What differs between states is who is allowed to perform it, whether it may happen remotely, and what has to be documented. This page sets out what we have verified for Arizona against primary sources, and says so plainly where a question is unsettled.
Who may perform the good faith exam in Arizona
An NP with full practice authority may perform it independently.
Medical director. Often not required by statute — NPs hold full practice authority and may own the clinic and be their own clinical lead.
Delegation and supervision. No collaborative agreement required for an NP. The statutory duty to refer and consult outside one’s competence remains.
The gate that catches operators in Arizona
The regulator is the Arizona Board of NURSING, not the Medical Board — operators route questions to the wrong agency.
Competitor pages claiming Arizona requires physicians to own 51% of clinical assets contradict full practice authority. We do not repeat that claim.
What makes the exam defensible
Nobody is ever asked to produce a good faith exam on a good day. The request arrives after a complication, a board complaint, an insurance audit or a buyer’s diligence. Five things decide whether what you hand over helps you:
- A qualified practitioner, permitted in that state, actually performed it.
- A real evaluation happened — history, indications, contraindications, and a decision.
- The treatment plan and the order are specific: drug or device, site, dose or settings.
- Informed consent was taken and recorded before treatment, not after.
- The record still exists, unaltered and retrievable, two years later when somebody asks.
Only the first of those is state-specific. The other four fail in exactly the same way in Arizona as everywhere else, and they are where most exam processes actually break — not on the licence question, but on documentation nobody kept.
How Arizona sits on structure
Corporate practice of medicine. Not strictly enforced.
The exam and the structure are separate questions and they fail separately. A perfectly documented exam performed inside an entity that may not lawfully deliver the service is still a problem, and a clean entity does not save a rubber-stamped exam. See medical direction in Arizona for the structure side.
What MDside provides in Arizona
- Arizona-licensed physicians performing the exam themselves — not a queue of signatures.
- A written evaluation, treatment plan and order per patient, in a record you keep and can export.
- Protocols and delegation written to Arizona, matched to the services actually on your menu.
- A named Arizona medical director doing the work, where your structure needs one.
- 503A and 503B pharmacy relationships and in-house lab draws where the treatment calls for them.
Book a call and we will read your current exam process against the five tests above, in Arizona and any other state you operate in. The review is free and you are not obliged to use us for the fix.
Read the detail on Arizona
Frequently asked questions
Who can perform a good faith exam in Arizona?
An NP with full practice authority may perform it independently.
Can the exam be done by telehealth in Arizona?
That depends on the state rule above and on the treatment. Where we have verified a restriction it is stated on this page; where the position is unsettled we say so rather than guess, and we confirm it with the board before you build a remote funnel.
Does Arizona require a physician medical director?
Often not required by statute — NPs hold full practice authority and may own the clinic and be their own clinical lead.
What happens if the exam is not documented?
The exam effectively did not happen. In a complaint, an audit or a sale, an undocumented evaluation is treated as no evaluation — which is why the record, not the call, is the thing you are actually buying.
Primary sources for Arizona: A.R.S. tit. 32 ch. 15; Arizona State Board of Nursing. Last reviewed 2026-09-03. Corrections are welcome and get made: contact us.
General information about good faith exams and practice structure in Arizona, not legal advice. Requirements differ by state and change often. Confirm your obligations with healthcare counsel licensed in Arizona.