Physician assistant screening questions: PA-C status, state license, supervision and specialty fit
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Physician assistant screening questions should settle eligibility before fit: is the candidate currently NCCPA certified (PA-C), licensed or able to be licensed in the job's state by the start date, registered with the DEA in that state if the role prescribes controlled substances, and able to work under the supervision or collaboration arrangement the state and the practice require? Then test specialty depth with dates and numbers: patient volume, procedures and when they last did each, how they use the physician they work with, and how fast they close charts.
The questions below are for PA roles in primary care, urgent care, emergency medicine, hospital medicine and surgical specialties. Advanced practice roles overlap, so if the client will accept either profession, pair this page with nurse practitioner screening questions; the credentials and state rules are different, and so are the questions.
Which PA seat are you filling?
PAs are trained as generalists and move between specialties more than most clinicians, which is a strength and a screening risk. Confirm the seat first.
| Seat | What the work looks like | Screen hardest for |
|---|---|---|
| Primary care or urgent care | Clinic visits, chronic disease follow-up or walk-in acute care | Visits per day, visit length, procedures such as laceration repair |
| Emergency medicine | Fast track or main department, shifts including nights | Which part of the department, acuity, procedures, physician availability |
| Hospital medicine | Rounding on inpatients, admissions, discharges, often nights | Census, admissions per shift, cross-cover experience |
| Surgical specialties | First assisting in the OR, pre- and post-op clinic, rounding, call | Which service line, cases per week, the split between OR and clinic |
| Procedural specialties (for example dermatology) | High-volume clinic with in-office procedures | Procedure list with recent dates, patient volume |
| Psychiatry | Evaluations and medication management, often by telehealth | Controlled substance prescribing, the states where patients are located |
Certification, license and prescribing: what to confirm
Certification. NCCPA says a candidate must graduate from an entry-level PA program accredited by ARC-PA to sit the PANCE, and that passing it grants board certification and the right to use "PA-C" only while certification stays current (NCCPA, becoming certified, as of October 2026). Keeping it current means 100 CME credits in each two-year period and a recertification exam (PANRE or PANRE-LA) by the end of a 10-year cycle, per NCCPA's maintenance page. NCCPA also offers Certificates of Added Qualifications (CAQs) in specialties including emergency medicine, hospital medicine, orthopaedic surgery, psychiatry and dermatology. A CAQ shows depth; it does not replace a state license.
State license and practice rules. Each state licenses PAs through its medical board or a PA board, and the rules on how a PA works with physicians differ widely. Two examples, as of October 2026: Minnesota requires a practice agreement that a physician in the same practice reviews every year (Minn. Stat. 147A.09), and Oregon changed the title to "physician associate" from June 6, 2024; the Oregon Medical Board says the change does not affect scope of practice. Ask the client which arrangement the role uses and who the supervising or collaborating physician will be.
Compact. The PA Licensure Compact lists 29 member states as of October 2026. A PA using a compact privilege must follow the laws of the state where they practice. Check the compact site for whether privileges are available for the job's state before relying on one.
Prescribing. Controlled substance prescribing needs DEA registration, and the DEA's registration guidance calls for a separate registration in each state where a practitioner handles controlled substances. Since June 27, 2023, practitioners applying for or renewing a DEA registration also attest once to eight hours of training on substance use disorders (DEA MATE Act FAQ).
Knockout questions
| Question | What a strong answer sounds like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Are you currently NCCPA certified, and when does your certification expire? | "Yes, PA-C, current through 2029; I'm logging CME now." Knows where they are in the cycle. | Unsure of the expiration year, or certification lapsed "for a while". |
| 2. Do you hold an active license in [state]? If not, where is the application? | Licensed, or applied with a date and what is outstanding. | Has not looked at the state's process for a start date six weeks away. |
| 3. Do you hold a DEA registration for [state], and for which schedules? | Names the state and schedules, and knows a new state needs its own registration. | "My DEA covers everywhere." |
| 4. Has any license, certification or registration you have held ever been restricted, put on probation or surrendered? | A plain no, or a plain account with dates. Credentialing will see it either way. | A long pause, then "technically no". |
| 5. In this role you would work with [physician arrangement]. Does that fit how you want to practice? | Clear about what they need from the physician and how often. | Expects full independence in a state or practice that requires an agreement. |
| 6. The schedule is [shifts, call, weekends]. Can you work it? | Yes, or an exception now. | Negotiates call before hearing the rest of the role. |
Specialty and procedure questions
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"Describe your current clinic or census: setting, patient mix, and how many patients you see or carry."
- Strong answer: a number and a mix. "Hospital medicine, 14 to 16 patients on days, two or three admissions."
- Red flag: a number that does not fit their visit length. Twenty-minute visits over an eight-hour clinic is about 24, not 40.
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"Which procedures do you do on your own, and when did you last do each one?"
- Strong answer: a short list with recent dates: "Lac repairs weekly, I&Ds, joint injections last month, no central lines since my ED job."
- Red flag: a long list from training with no recent dates.
-
"Surgical roles: how many cases do you first assist in a week, on which service, and what do you do at closing?"
- Strong answer: a service, a weekly count, and specific tasks (positioning, retraction, closure).
- Red flag: "assisted" means holding retractors occasionally in clinic weeks.
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"Walk me through the last patient you discussed with your supervising or collaborating physician. Why that one?"
- Strong answer: a specific case, what made it outside their comfort or scope, and how they presented it.
- Red flag: never discusses patients, or discusses every patient. Both are hard to work with.
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"How do you approach prescribing controlled substances, and what does your state's monitoring program require of you?"
- Strong answer: checks the prescription monitoring program when required, uses agreements for long-term therapy, follows the practice's policy.
- Red flag: does not know whether their state requires a check.
Charting and productivity
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"Which EHR do you chart in, and how soon after a visit or shift are your notes closed?"
- Strong answer: the system and an honest time, with how they keep up (templates, dictation, end-of-day block).
- Red flag: routinely days behind. Open charts hold up billing and are a common reason practices part ways with providers.
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"How was your productivity measured, and where did you land?"
- Strong answer: visits per day, RVUs or encounters, with their recent figure and the target.
- Red flag: quotes a target as if it were their result.
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"What compensation structure do you want here: salary, hourly, or productivity-based?"
- Strong answer: a clear preference and a number for what they need.
- Note: ask what they want, not what they earn now. Many states restrict pay history questions; see salary history bans by state.
Where PA experience gets overstated
- Rotations as experience. A five-week clinical rotation in dermatology listed as dermatology experience.
- Earlier patient-care roles counted as PA years. Years as a medical assistant, scribe, EMT or nurse are valuable and often how PAs entered school, but the client is hiring PA experience.
- CAQ eligible as CAQ held. Ask whether they passed the specialty exam, and verify.
- Assisted as performed. Procedures watched or assisted on, listed as done independently.
- Fast track as full emergency medicine. Low-acuity fast track work described as emergency medicine for a role in the main department.
- Telehealth volume as clinic volume. Short asynchronous visits counted as in-person patients.
A 20-minute phone-screen flow
- Minutes 0 to 2: the role in two sentences: setting, specialty, schedule, the physician arrangement.
- Minutes 2 to 7: knockouts 1 to 6. If certification, license or the arrangement does not fit, say so and stop.
- Minutes 7 to 14: specialty and procedure questions 7 to 11, pushing for numbers and dates.
- Minutes 14 to 18: charting and productivity, 12 to 14.
- Minutes 18 to 20: their questions, credentialing timeline, next step.
Score knockouts pass or fail and the rest 0 to 2 on specialty match, procedure recency, judgment about when to involve the physician, charting habits and schedule fit. Write certification, license and DEA details exactly as given, then check them on NCCPA's verification tool, the state board and the NPPES NPI Registry. Our guide to professional license verification covers how to record what you checked.
Legal cautions for PA screens
Ask about licenses, certification and board actions, which are job-related. Do not ask about the candidate's health, medications, pregnancy, childcare or age; for physical demands, describe the duty and ask whether they can perform it with or without accommodation (see ADA accommodations in interviews). Questions about malpractice history and substance use belong on the employer's credentialing application, in the wording its counsel approved, not improvised on a phone screen. For the full list of questions to avoid, see illegal interview questions. This is general information as of October 2026, not legal advice.
If you run back-to-back provider screens, Interview Signal keeps the certification, license and DEA questions pinned until you have asked them, and writes the notes from the candidate's own answers. It runs on your computer beside Zoom, Teams, Meet or a phone call routed through the computer, with no bot joining the call.
Questions people ask
How do I verify that a physician assistant is board certified?
Use NCCPA's Verify Board Certification tool, check the state license on the medical board or PA board site for the job's state, and look up the NPI on the NPPES NPI Registry. Your check is a pre-screen; the employer's credentialing team still does primary-source verification before the PA sees patients.
How long is PA certification valid, and what keeps it current?
As of October 2026, NCCPA certification maintenance runs in a 10-year cycle split into five two-year periods. In each two-year period the PA logs 100 CME credits and pays a maintenance fee, due by December 31 of the expiration year, and by the end of year 10 they must pass a recertification exam, either PANRE or the longitudinal PANRE-LA.
Can a physician assistant practice in another state with a compact privilege?
Only in states that belong to the PA Licensure Compact, and only once a privilege has been issued. As of October 2026 the compact's site lists 29 member states. A PA using a privilege must follow the practice laws of the state where they work, so check the compact site and the state board for the job's state; otherwise the PA needs that state's license.
Can a new graduate PA start work before passing the PANCE?
Check with the client and the state board, because licensing rules differ. The PA-C credential itself comes only after passing the PANCE, which NCCPA lets a graduate of an ARC-PA accredited program take as early as seven days after completing the program, so build the exam and the state license into the start date.