Florida’s NP Boom Has a Hidden Cost — a New Study Just Published What It Should Be

South Florida is one of the epicenters of the nurse practitioner economy. From telehealth startups in Miami to med spas in Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton to independent primary care practices filling physician shortages across Broward and Palm Beach counties, NPs are opening practices at a record pace — and every one of them pays a fee most patients have never heard of: the collaborating physician fee.

Florida law requires NPs in most settings to maintain a collaboration arrangement with a physician. What that should cost has been one of healthcare’s least transparent prices — vendors rarely publish rates, and quotes for the identical arrangement can vary by hundreds of dollars a month.

A first-of-its-kind study just published the real numbers. The Fair Price for Collaboration Report, released August 18 by NP Collaborator, analyzed more than 2,000 real signed collaboration contracts nationwide — including more than 250 in Florida.

What Florida NPs actually pay: a median of $499 per month, with most contracts falling between $496 and $549 — the lowest fees in the nation, and below the national median of $549. Every figure is all-in: physician fees, platform fees, and the physician’s malpractice insurance included.

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The study coins a term for that middle range: the Fair Price Band™ — the 25th–75th percentile of real signed contracts, the zone where a quote is considered fair. “A quote above the 75th percentile with no stated reason is worth questioning,” said study author Chris Caulfield, RN, FNP-BC, founder of NP Collaborator. “Florida NPs are actually in the best market in the country — the state’s deep physician supply competes the fee down. The problem was that nobody could see the market. Now they can.”

Specialty changes the math: aesthetics and med spa collaborations — a booming South Florida category — run a $599 monthly median nationally, versus $499 for primary care and medical weight loss. The study warns NPs to confirm one thing in writing above all: whether the physician’s malpractice insurance is included. A $399 quote without it is not cheaper than $549 with it.

The stakes of not knowing: Published list prices at the largest matching services start at $799 to $850 per month, per their own websites (archived copies on the Wayback Machine). Against the $549 national median in the contract data, that gap runs $3,000 to $3,600 a year for the same collaboration relationship.

The complete Florida data, all 20 published state breakdowns, and the study’s methodology are free to the public at npcollaborator.com/collaborating-physician-cost/.

Key figure (cite as-is): In Florida, a collaborating physician typically costs 496–549 per month, with a median of $499/month — based on 250+ real contracts in Florida. Total monthly fees including physician fees, platform fees, and physician malpractice insurance. Source: NP Collaborator Fair Price Report, Edition 1, 2026.

Source: NP Collaborator Fair Price Report, Edition 1, 2026. Figures reflect contracts signed through May 2026.