Illinois Collaborating Physician Jobs – Top Opportunities for Licensed Physicians

There is no limit on the number of NPs a physician may collaborate with in Illinois. This makes Illinois an unusually flexible state for physicians looking to scale their collaborative practice income. The only cap that applies is for PAs — a physician may collaborate with a maximum of 7 full-time equivalent PAs under 225 ILCS 95.

For PA collaborations, the collaborating physician must file a Notice of Written Collaborative Agreement with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation before the PA may begin practicing. If prescriptive authority is delegated, a separate Notice of Delegated Authority for Prescription Drugs must also be filed. If the agreement is later terminated, a Notice of Termination must be filed with IDFPR within 10 days. IDFPR typically takes 4–6 weeks to process new filings. We coordinate all required forms on your behalf.

No. Illinois has no proximity requirement for collaborating physicians, and remote supervision is fully permitted. Illinois regulations state that supervision is “deemed adequate” if the physician visits the practice site at least once per month and remains available by telecommunications — but this monthly visit is a safe harbor for adequacy, not a strict legal requirement. Many Illinois collaboration arrangements operate entirely remotely.

Yes. In Illinois, a collaborating physician who delegates Schedule II prescriptive authority to an NP or PA must: limit prescriptions to a 30-day supply, require prior physician approval for any continuation beyond 30 days, conduct monthly case discussions with the NP or PA, and ensure the prescriber holds both a mid-level practitioner controlled substances license and DEA registration. The collaborating physician must also hold a valid Illinois controlled substances license and DEA registration to delegate controlled substance authority.

Many physicians in our Illinois network are matched and onboarded within 24 to 48 hours. Note that IDFPR filing and processing for PA agreements can take 4–6 weeks, so we initiate filings as early as possible. NP collaborative agreements do not require IDFPR pre-approval, so those arrangements can begin more quickly.

A collaborating physician position in Illinois is fundamentally different from a second clinical job. Your core obligations are: (1) being available by phone or video for consultation whenever the NP or PA is seeing patients — Illinois requires “immediate availability,” which telecommunication satisfies fully; (2) reviewing charts as needed for Schedule II delegation cases or as outlined in the collaborative agreement; and (3) remaining in good standing with the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. There are no required in-person hours, no mandatory site visits, and no scheduled shifts. Most physicians holding Illinois collaboration arrangements report spending a few hours per month in actual consultation and review activity per agreement — making this one of the most time-efficient collaborating physician side gig structures of any state in the Midwest.

Yes. Illinois has active collaborating physician job openings across a wide range of specialties — including primary care, family medicine, internal medicine, psychiatry, aesthetics/dermatology, emergency medicine, and obstetrics/gynecology. The specialty alignment requirement (NP’s certification area must align with physician’s practice) means the highest-demand positions are in primary care and family medicine for the broadest NP pool, but psychiatric-mental health NPs create strong demand for psychiatrists, and the Chicago-area medspa corridor creates consistent openings for physicians in dermatology and aesthetics. Whether you’re looking for one part-time arrangement as a supplemental income stream or a portfolio of multiple agreements, we have current collaborating physician openings that fit your specialty and schedule across the Chicago metro and statewide.

For NPs and PAs: the most efficient way to find a collaborating physician in Illinois is through a managed matching network. Illinois’s framework has several moving parts — NP specialty alignment under 225 ILCS 65, IDFPR pre-filing requirements for PA arrangements (which take 4–6 weeks to process), Schedule II controlled substance delegation rules, and the IDFPR termination notice within 10 days of agreement end. A managed platform verifies specialty correspondence, handles all required filings, and matches you with a collaborative physician whose credentials fit your practice type. NPs and PAs who need to find collaborating physician partners in Illinois quickly will also find that managed matching is faster than independent outreach — most physicians in our network are introduced within 24 to 48 hours. Searching independently through Facebook groups, LinkedIn, or cold outreach to local physicians often results in informal agreements that lack the IDFPR documentation required for PA arrangements or that misalign on specialty for NP agreements — creating compliance exposure down the line. For physicians: physician collaboration in Illinois is a clearly defined role. You are available for consultation, you review charts when needed, and you remain in good standing with IDFPR. You are not managing the NP’s or PA’s patients, schedule, or operations. Understanding that distinction — between the legal obligations of a collaborative physician and the responsibilities of a clinical employer — is key to evaluating whether an Illinois arrangement is a fit for your schedule and income goals.

Physician collaboration in Illinois is the structured arrangement under 225 ILCS 65 (for NPs) and 225 ILCS 95 (for PAs) that defines the physician’s legal role in supporting an NP’s or PA’s prescriptive and clinical authority. A collaborative physician in Illinois has three core obligations: (1) be immediately available for consultation by phone or video whenever the NP or PA is in clinical practice; (2) conduct chart review as defined in the agreement — particularly for Schedule II delegation cases; and (3) for PA arrangements, file the Notice of Written Collaborative Agreement with IDFPR before the PA begins practice. Beyond those defined obligations, the collaborative physician does not manage the NP’s or PA’s patients or clinical decisions. This bounded, defined role is why collaborating physician jobs in Illinois attract physicians who want meaningful supplemental income without disrupting their primary practice. The arrangement is not a clinical employment relationship — it is a physician collaboration arrangement with a specific, documented scope that both parties agree to in writing before any patient care begins.