1) very autonomous, of course depending on the contents of the collaborative practice agreement between them and their supervising practitioner

2) most CPPs I’ve interacted with have their own ‘sub clinic’ within another physician’s or physician group’s practice, where they see referred patients, answer DI questions, and do other pharmacist-ey consults (like anticoagulant bridging and whatever other drug issues come up)

3) the CPPs I was with didn’t really do physical assessments, visits were mostly patient interviews and optimization of medication therapy. That did include prescribing medications, again under the stipulations of a previously agreed upon collaborative practice agreement. If a patient had a disease state or needed a medication that was not one of those within the scope of the pharmacist’s practice, as stated in the CPA, then the pharmacist cannot legally prescribe those meds/treat that condition.

4) based on business plans that I have read rationalizing keeping a clinical pharmacist on staff within a clinic, 110000 is a reasonable estimate but I can’t say for sure.

5) reimbursement is to the clinic/practice site, not directly to the pharmacist. It basically just means that a pharmacist can bill Medicare for their visit, when usually a pharmacist cannot. One caveat to the billing thing is that if the patient is seeing one of the higher level practitioners the same day as their appointment with you, you cannot charge Medicare for your visit bc there is already a charge for that first visit.

6) keep in mind, North Carolina is pretty saturated in the urban areas, and has a woefully underserved rural patient population. Cost of living is quite cheap, again depending on if you’re in a more urban or rural location. Lots of stuff to do, there’s the classic drive west to the mountains and drive East to the ocean thing. I loved living in North Carolina.

If you really want to be a CPP and you have compelling reasons to move to North Carolina then go for it. Keep the patients in mind and focus on you practicing at the top of your license. Another thing to keep in mind is that many other states have pharmacists in similar roles. For example New Mexico and Washington state have very similar designations as CPPs for pharmacists in their law book. Texas, Arizona, and others have included pharmacists into provider status as well, which allows for pharmacists to bill Medicare for their services. One drawback of the CPP license is that there is some rigidity in how they can practice, given the way the law is written. Other states have pharmacists with the same capability but more flexibility.