The short answer for Pennsylvania. An RN may inject only after a good faith exam by a physician, CRNP or PA.
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 Pennsylvania against primary sources, and says so plainly where a question is unsettled.
Who may perform the good faith exam in Pennsylvania
An RN may inject only after a good faith exam by a physician, CRNP or PA.
Medical director. MD or DO. A director in name only is expressly insufficient.
Delegation and supervision. A CRNP practises under a collaborative agreement FILED with the State Board of Medicine — filed, not merely signed and kept in a drawer.
The gate that catches operators in Pennsylvania
Non-compliance is framed as civil and criminal exposure, not only board enforcement.
The filing requirement is the one operators miss. An unfiled agreement is not an agreement for this purpose.
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 Pennsylvania as everywhere else, and they are where most exam processes actually break — not on the licence question, but on documentation nobody kept.
How Pennsylvania sits on structure
Corporate practice of medicine. Yes. Medical services must be rendered by licensees, or by entities wholly owned by them.
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 Pennsylvania for the structure side.
What MDside provides in Pennsylvania
- Pennsylvania-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 Pennsylvania, matched to the services actually on your menu.
- A named Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania
Frequently asked questions
Who can perform a good faith exam in Pennsylvania?
An RN may inject only after a good faith exam by a physician, CRNP or PA.
Can the exam be done by telehealth in Pennsylvania?
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 Pennsylvania require a physician medical director?
MD or DO. A director in name only is expressly insufficient.
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 Pennsylvania: Pa. professional corporation law; 49 Pa. Code (State Board of Medicine); collaborative agreement filing requirement. Last reviewed 2026-09-03. Corrections are welcome and get made: contact us.
General information about good faith exams and practice structure in Pennsylvania, not legal advice. Requirements differ by state and change often. Confirm your obligations with healthcare counsel licensed in Pennsylvania.