CNM · New York
Collaborative Practice Agreement for Certified Nurse-Midwives in New York
No. Certified Nurse-Midwives practice independently here. New York does not require one.
Midwifery is licensed under its own Professional Midwifery Practice Act (Educ. Law Art. 140), entirely separate from the nursing-collaboration framework. 'Licensed midwives are not supervised; they are independent practitioners' (NYSED) — independence from day one of licensure, no hours threshold, since a 2010 amendment eliminated a prior written-agreement requirement.
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
No proximity requirement
No physical-proximity/radius requirement — the collaborative-relationship model requires an arrangement with a qualified OB/GYN or hospital, not physical proximity. Home birth, freestanding birth centers, and hospital-based practice are all permitted settings.
Supervision ratio
Not codified — no cap on file
Chart review
Not codified — left to the agreement
Meeting cadence
Not codified — left to the agreement
Prescriptive authority
Covered by the practice agreement · controlled substances permitted
Not required to obtain a physician countersignature; may obtain an individual DEA number. No NY-specific controlled-substance schedule restriction was found beyond the standard DEA registration framework.
Written agreement
Not required
No written practice agreement — eliminated by a Nov. 2010 amendment (§6951). A documented 'collaborative relationship' with a board-certified or hospital-privileged OB/GYN physician (or a hospital providing obstetric services) is still required — consultation/collaborative-management/referral provisions plus a documented emergency-coverage plan — but NYSED itself distinguishes this explicitly from supervision: no physician sign-off on individual patient charts or protocols is required.
Practice ownership (corporate practice of medicine)
Non-licensee ownership permitted — Midwifery (Art. 140) is its own licensed profession, separate from nursing (Art. 139) and medicine (Art. 131) — nursing licensure isn't even a prerequisite to midwifery licensure in NY. A midwife-only PC/PLLC appears legally permissible without any physician-shareholder under the same-profession ownership framework (Bus. Corp. Law §§1503/1506/1507 / LLC Law §1207(b)) — a reasoned inference from that framework plus secondary-source confirmation, not a directly-read statutory listing of 'midwifery' by name.
Legal sources for these rules (5)
- N.Y. Educ. Law Article 140, §§ 6950-6958 (Professional Midwifery Practice Act)
- N.Y. Educ. Law § 6951 (definition of practice, collaborative relationship, prescriptive authority)
- NYSED Office of the Professions — Midwifery Q&A
- NYSED Office of the Professions — Midwifery license requirements
- S5542/A1125 (2025-26 session) — pending bill for a SEPARATE non-nurse 'Certified Professional Midwife' category (Article 140-a); does not affect CNM status, noted to avoid confusion with future research
What a collaborating physician costs here
Typical monthly cost in New York
$500 – $600
Estimate for one Certified Nurse-Midwife. Standard-tier state.
About New York's rules
New York combines an unusually strict general corporate-practice-of-medicine regime (physician/same-profession-only PC/PLLC ownership) with two notable exceptions: pharmacy ownership is NOT restricted to pharmacists (Educ. Law §6808), and midwifery (CNM) is its own fully independent practice act (Art. 140), unlike the physician-collaboration model governing NP/PMHNP. CRNA has no dedicated practice statute at all — governed only by DOH facility regulation. NP/PMHNP independence (≥3,600 hours) is a repeatedly-extended sunset provision (currently through July 1, 2030), not permanent law.
Other clinicians in New York: see the state overview.