Wednesday, 19 August 2026 10:55 AM
Company Update
The Fair Price for Collaboration Report publishes state-by-state medians and the Fair Price Band™ - free and ungated - for a required fee that has never had a public benchmark, with quotes in the market running well over $1,000 a month
ORLANDO, FL / ACCESS Newswire / August 19, 2026 / NP Collaborator this week released The Fair Price for Collaboration Report, the first all-in cost study of what nurse practitioners actually pay collaborating physicians - a fee required by law for NPs in most U.S. states, and until now one of the least transparent prices in outpatient healthcare.
Built from more than 2,000 real signed collaboration contracts across 20 states, the study finds that most nurse practitioners pay $499-$599 per month for a collaborating physician, with a national median of $549 per month. Every figure is all-in: physician fees, platform fees, and the physician's malpractice insurance combined.
Key findings from the report:
The Fair Price Band™ - the 25th-75th percentile of real signed contracts - is $499 to $599 per month nationally. The report's guidance: a quote above the 75th percentile with no stated reason is worth questioning.
State medians range from $498 per month in Illinois to $649 in California, Tennessee, and Alabama - a difference of more than $1,800 per year for the same relationship.
A state's practice-authority label does not predict the price - its specific requirements do. The fee tracks everything that shapes the pool of eligible, willing physicians: whether the collaborator must be licensed or located in the state, whether specialties must match, required chart-review volume and cadence, ratio limits, and physician pay and participation. Several restricted-practice states rank among the least expensive markets in the study, while some states with the largest physician workforces rank among the most expensive.
By practice type: mental/behavioral health collaborations show a $549 monthly median, primary care $499, medical weight loss $499, and aesthetics/med spa $599.
The most common way NPs overpay is malpractice bundling: a "$399" quote that excludes the physician's malpractice insurance is not cheaper than a $549 quote that includes it.
"When I was searching for my own collaborating physician, the quotes I got from matching and compliance services ran well over $1,000 a month - for the same relationship the data now shows most NPs get for $499 to $599," said Chris Caulfield, RN, FNP-BC, the board-certified family nurse practitioner who authored the study and founded NP Collaborator. "Nobody would tell me the market rate, because there wasn't one. That's why this study exists."
The stakes of the missing benchmark are measurable. Published list prices at the largest matching services start at $799 to $850 per month, per their own websites. Against the $549 national median in the contract data, that gap runs $3,000 to $3,600 a year for the same collaboration relationship.
More than 385,000 nurse practitioners are licensed in the United States, and NPs in the majority of states must maintain a collaboration or supervision arrangement with a physician to practice. For independent NP practices - primary care, mental health, telehealth, medical weight loss, and aesthetics - the collaboration fee is typically the largest recurring compliance cost on the books.
"The Fair Price Band is the range where most real signed contracts land - nationally, $499 to $599 a month," Caulfield said. "That single piece of information changes every negotiation. An NP who knows their state's band walks in with the market on their side. A quote above the band with no stated reason is worth questioning - and now every NP can ask that question in thirty seconds."
The report is published in full - every state's median and Fair Price Band, the complete methodology, and a machine-readable dataset - with no paywall and no registration required.
"We published everything, including our own interest in this market and the limitations of the data, because a benchmark only works if everyone can see it and stress-test it," Caulfield said. "We report medians rather than averages, publish the 25th-75th percentile bands, cite competitor pricing only from archived copies of their own websites, and put the underlying figures out as open data. Read the methodology and judge for yourself."
The full report, all 20 state breakdowns, and the methodology are available at https://npcollaborator.com/collaborating-physician-cost/. Each published state has a dedicated page (for example, npcollaborator.com/collaborating-physician-cost/florida/). Charts, citation formats, and media resources are available for journalists.
About the study: The Fair Price for Collaboration Report (Edition 1, 2026) analyzes 2,000+ real signed collaborating-physician contracts across 20 states, reported as medians and 25th-75th percentile bands. Figures reflect contracts signed through May 2026. Released August 18, 2026. Author: Chris Caulfield, RN, MSN, FNP-BC. Suggested citation: NP Collaborator. (2026). The Fair Price for Collaboration Report (Edition 1). Retrieved from https://npcollaborator.com/collaborating-physician-cost/
About NP Collaborator: NP Collaborator is a healthcare compliance marketplace connecting nurse practitioners and physician associates with collaborating physicians across all 50 states, with transparent, live marketplace pricing that includes physician malpractice coverage. The company was founded by Chris Caulfield, RN, MSN, FNP-BC, and David Coppins, co-founders of IntelyCare, the digital healthcare staffing marketplace. Learn more at https://npcollaborator.com.
Media contact: [email protected] · Interview requests and state-level data available on request.
SOURCE: NP Collaborator