To get a Nevada physician assistant license, you apply to the Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners after graduating from an ARC-PA accredited program and passing the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination. The full package of fees for a first-time applicant covering a complete two-year licensing period is $775, and the license then renews every two years with continuing medical education.
Before You Apply
Two credentials have to be in place before the Board will consider you. First, graduation from a physician assistant program accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant. Programs completed before 2002 can still qualify if they were approved by a predecessor accrediting body such as the Commission on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
Second, you must pass the Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE), administered by the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants. Nevada requires active NCCPA certification both when you apply and continuously for as long as you hold the license.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
A few other baseline qualifications sit in the administrative code. You must be a U.S. citizen or lawfully authorized to work in the country, communicate effectively in English in writing and in person, and be of good moral character. If you haven’t practiced as a PA for 24 months or more before applying, the Board can require you to retake the national certifying exam before it will issue a license.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
What the Application Asks For
The application is filed on the Board’s official form and must be signed and sworn before a notary public. The administrative code tells you exactly what to include:1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
- Date and place of birth, sex, and a full residence history since your most recent graduation.
- Every school and postsecondary institution you attended, length of attendance, graduation status, and proof you completed your ARC-PA program.
- Verification of your PANCE pass, sent to the Board directly from NCCPA.
- Any PA license applications you have filed in other states, when, where, and the outcome.
- Any investigations, license revocations or suspensions, felony convictions, convictions involving moral turpitude, and anything involving controlled substances.
You also have to disclose malpractice history: actions, arbitration claims, settlements, awards, and judgments, with the dollar amounts.2Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. Report of Actions or Claims for Malpractice, Arbitration or Mediation, Settlements, Awards, Judgments, Other Dispositions or Sanctions Leaving any of this off can get the application denied or trigger discipline later.
Nevada law also requires a full set of fingerprints with written permission for the Board to send them to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History, which forwards them to the FBI for a federal criminal history report.3Nevada Legislature. Nevada Revised Statutes 630.167 The $75 background check fee is nonrefundable, even if your application is denied or withdrawn.4Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners Licensure Fees
What It Costs
The current fee schedule runs from July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2027. For an initial PA license the fees break down this way:4Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners Licensure Fees
- Application fee: $300
- Registration fee, full biennium: $400
- Registration fee, second half of biennium: $200
- Criminal background check: $75
- Total, full biennium: $775
- Total, second half of biennium: $575
If you want simultaneous licensure through both the Board of Medical Examiners and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine, the application fee drops to $200, so the combined total runs $675 for a full biennium.4Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners. Nevada State Board of Medical Examiners Licensure Fees
Payment is by cashier’s check, money order, or credit card. The Board does not accept personal or business checks, and credit card payments carry a 2.5% processing fee charged by the Board’s payment processor.
How Long Review Takes
Once your file is complete, the Board verifies everything at the source: it contacts your schools, NCCPA, past employers, and national databases directly rather than relying on your copies. Processing times vary, and the Board has noted that timelines depend on how quickly those third parties respond. Plan on several weeks at minimum. Delays are common when a school or former employer is slow.
The license itself issues under NRS 630.273 once the Board confirms you meet the qualifications in the administrative code.5Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists, Anesthesiologist Assistants and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
What You Can Do With the License
Nevada PAs do not practice independently. The supervising physician is legally responsible for your medical activities, including the services you perform, chart review, and controlled substance compliance.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care In practice that means:
- Your supervising physician must be reachable at all times while you see patients. Contact can be indirect, including by phone, and the physician does not have to be in the building.
- The supervising physician reviews and initials a selection of your charts on an ongoing basis.
- At least once per month, the supervising physician must spend part of a day at any location where you provide care to consult with you and monitor your work.
- The supervising physician maintains a formal quality assurance program with competency assessments, chart reviews, referral evaluations, and direct observation of your patient interactions.
If the supervising physician is temporarily unavailable, they must designate a qualified substitute in the same specialty. You must identify yourself as a physician assistant to every patient and never present yourself in a way that could mislead patients or other health professionals.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
Nevada PAs can prescribe controlled substances in Schedules II through V, but only within the range their supervising physician is authorized to prescribe.5Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists, Anesthesiologist Assistants and Practitioners of Respiratory Care The administrative code specifically protects PAs from discipline solely for prescribing Schedule II–V substances to patients under their care, so long as the prescribing follows established guidelines.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care To actually write prescriptions you also need a federal Drug Enforcement Administration registration, a three-year credential obtained by filing DEA Form 224 as a mid-level practitioner, plus a National Provider Identifier through CMS, which is free.
Opioid prescribing is where Nevada draws a hard line. Prescribing opioids for acute or chronic pain must follow the Board’s adopted guidelines for chronic opioid use, and deviating from them is prohibited professional conduct that can trigger discipline.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
Renewing Every Two Years
The license renews on a two-year cycle. The CME hours you owe depend on when during the biennium you were first licensed:6Legal Information Institute. Nevada Administrative Code 630.350 – Renewal, Expiration and Reinstatement of License
- Licensed in the first 6 months of the biennium: 40 hours
- Licensed in the second 6 months: 30 hours
- Licensed in the third 6 months: 20 hours
- Licensed in the fourth 6 months: 10 hours
Hours must meet the standards of the American Academy of Physician Associates or qualify as AMA Category 1. Nevada also mandates specific topics within your CME:
- Suicide prevention and awareness: at least 2 hours every 4 years, covering detection of suicidal behaviors (including post-traumatic stress disorder), intervention, and prevention. These hours cannot substitute for ethics credits.5Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists, Anesthesiologist Assistants and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
- Substance use disorders and opioid prescribing: at least 2 hours per biennium, required for any PA registered to dispense controlled substances.1Nevada Legislature. Nevada Administrative Code 630 – Physicians, Physician Assistants, Medical Assistants, Perfusionists and Practitioners of Respiratory Care
- Terrorism and weapons of mass destruction: a one-time course on the medical consequences of an act of terrorism, required within 2 years of initial licensure.
You also have to keep NCCPA certification active across the whole renewal period. That means either the PANRE-LA, a longitudinal assessment taken at home over three years starting in year six of the certification cycle, or the traditional PANRE at a testing center in year ten.7NCCPA. NCCPA Announces Permanent Alternative to PANRE, PANRE-LA
If Your License Expires
Miss the registration fee or the CME requirement by the deadline and the license expires. You must stop practicing immediately. Nevada gives you a reinstatement window, but it costs:6Legal Information Institute. Nevada Administrative Code 630.350 – Renewal, Expiration and Reinstatement of License
- You have 2 years from the expiration date to reinstate.
- You pay double the current biennial registration fee.
- You submit proof you completed all required CME.
- The Board must find you in good standing and qualified under the administrative code.
After the 2-year window closes, that streamlined reinstatement goes away and you would have to reapply as a new applicant.
Two Boundaries Worth Knowing
PAs working under an osteopathic physician are licensed through the State Board of Osteopathic Medicine under NRS Chapter 633 rather than through the Board of Medical Examiners. The qualifications and process are similar, but the two boards are separate, with their own fees and forms.8Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 633 – Osteopathic Medicine Simultaneous licensure is available if you want to work under both MD and DO supervisors.
And if you plan to practice across state lines, Nevada has not enacted the PA Licensure Compact. You will need to apply individually for a license in each state where you work until that changes.