Physician Assistant Licensure Compact: States and Eligibility

The Physician Assistant Licensure Compact is an agreement among states that will let a PA licensed in one member state practice in the others without holding a separate license in each one. As of 2026, 24 states have enacted it, but no state is issuing privileges yet. The PA Licensure Compact Commission is building the shared data system through 2026 and projects that states will begin granting “compact privileges” in early 2027.¹

When the system launches, a qualifying PA will log into a central online portal, pick the member states where they want to practice, and receive a privilege after the system verifies their credentials.

Which States Have Joined

Twenty-four states are compact members: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.² States can only join by passing the model compact legislation without major modifications. Each state’s licensing board keeps operating independently, but members agree to abide by the commission’s collective decisions and to share investigative and disciplinary information through the central data system.³

Who Will Qualify for a Compact Privilege

The compact sets a specific list of qualifications. Missing any one of them blocks the application.

License and Certification

You must hold a qualifying license, defined as an unrestricted PA license issued by a participating state. That state becomes your home state for compact purposes.⁴ Any limitation, restriction, or encumbrance from a disciplinary action disqualifies the license.

You must also hold current NCCPA certification, and your home state must require passage of a recognized national exam such as the NCCPA PANCE as a condition of licensure.⁵ Your PA program must have been accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant, or by another program the commission authorizes by rule.⁴

Criminal History and Past Discipline

Any felony or misdemeanor conviction disqualifies you. The compact defines “conviction” broadly to include a guilty finding, a guilty plea, or a no-contest plea, and there is no time limit that lifts this bar.⁶

Adverse actions against a license work differently. If your license was restricted or limited because of a disciplinary action, at least two years must pass after the restriction is lifted before you can apply.⁴ So a conviction is a permanent bar; discipline is a waiting period.

Background Check and Identifier

Every participating state must require a criminal background check with fingerprint submission before licensing. The state licensing board receives the results and reports the licensing outcome to the commission.⁴ You also need a unique identifier as determined by commission rule. The model legislation gives the commission discretion over what that identifier is; it does not specify a National Provider Identifier.⁷

How the Privilege Will Work

Once the system goes live, an eligible PA will use the commission’s online data system to request compact privileges. You choose the specific states, and the system verifies your home state license, certification, and disciplinary history against the national database automatically.¹ After verification and payment, the system issues the privilege and notifies you and the remote state’s board electronically.

Each privilege request will carry a fee. The compact authorizes the commission to charge a compact privilege fee, and individual participating states can also assess their own fees for each privilege and each renewal. The exact amounts have not been set and will be finalized before launch.⁸

Practicing under a privilege means practicing under the remote state’s laws, not your home state’s. Different supervision requirements, documentation rules, or procedure restrictions in that state apply to you while you work there.¹ For telehealth, the governing law is the law of the state where the patient is located, not where you are sitting.⁸

Controlled Substances Are Not Included

A compact privilege does not automatically grant prescriptive authority for controlled substances. For every state where you want to prescribe them, you must separately satisfy that state’s requirements for granting or renewing that authority.⁵ That can mean registering with the state’s controlled substance authority, obtaining a separate DEA registration for the state, or completing extra training. The same principle covers any other state-specific prerequisite for supervision, collaboration, or prescribing.⁸

Keeping the Privilege Active

Your compact privileges depend entirely on your home state license. If that license expires, is suspended, or gets revoked, every privilege you hold in other states terminates immediately. You have to meet whatever continuing education your home state requires.⁴

If you move, report the new primary residence address to the commission within 30 days.⁹ A change in your primary state of residence means a new home state designation, and missing the 30-day window can create a gap in your authority to practice in remote states.

Renewals will run through the same commission portal. Cycles and fees have not been finalized, but participating states can assess renewal fees, and failing to renew or pay results in loss of the privilege.⁸

Discipline Follows You Across States

When a participating state takes a disciplinary action against a PA, it must promptly report the action to the commission’s data system, which then notifies every other participating state. “Adverse action” covers license denial, revocation, suspension, probation, censure, monitoring, or restrictions on practice.¹⁰

States also share “significant investigative information,” meaning investigative material a board has determined, after giving you a chance to respond, is not groundless and would point to more than a minor infraction if proven. That information moves between participating states through the data system and is not automatically public.¹⁰ The practical effect is that a PA who runs into trouble in one member state cannot move to another and start fresh.

Military Personnel and Spouses

Active-duty military personnel and their spouses who are PAs can obtain a compact privilege based on holding an unrestricted license in good standing from any participating state.¹¹ A military spouse can keep a home state license in one participating state and use privileges to practice at each new posting, as long as the state where they are stationed has also joined.

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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. About the PA Licensure Compact
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Licensure Compact
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Compact Model Legislation – Section: Establishment of the PA Licensure Compact Commission
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Licensure Compact Model Legislation – Section: Compact Privilege
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Licensure Compact Summary of Key Provisions
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Compact Model Legislation – Section: Definitions
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Compact Model Legislation – Section: Compact Privilege
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. FAQ
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PA Compact Commission. Draft 3 Rule 2 State of Qualifying License
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Compact Model Legislation – Section: Data System
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Physician Assistant Licensure Compact. PA Compact Model Legislation – Section: Purpose