Iowa § 154B.1 - 154B.1 Definitions.

§ 154B.1. 154B.1 Definitions.

As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires: 1. “Board” means the board of behavioral health professionals created under chapter 147. 2. “Collaborative practice agreement” means a written agreement between a prescribing psychologist and a licensed physician that establishes clinical protocols, practice guidelines, and care plans relevant to the scope of the collaborative practice. The practice guidelines may include limitations on the prescribing of psychotropic medications by psychologists and protocols for prescribing to special populations, including patients who are less than seventeen years of age or over sixty-five years of age, patients who are pregnant, patients with serious medical conditions including but not limited to heart disease, cancer, stroke, or seizures, and patients with developmental disabilities and intellectual disabilities. 3. “Collaborative relationship” means a cooperative working relationship between a prescribing psychologist or a psychologist with a conditional prescription certificate and a primary care provider as defined in section 280A.1 who oversees the patient’s general medical care, including diagnosis and cooperation in the management and delivery of physical and mental health care. 4. “Conditional prescription certificate” means a document issued by the board to a licensed psychologist that permits the holder to prescribe psychotropic medication under the supervision of a licensed physician pursuant to this chapter. 5. “Physician” means a person licensed to practice medicine and surgery or osteopathic medicine and surgery in this state in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, or another specialty who prescribes medications for the treatment of a mental disorder to patients in the normal course of the person’s clinical medical practice pursuant to joint rules adopted by the board of behavioral health professionals and the board of medicine. 6. “Practice of psychology” means the application of established principles of learning, motivation, perception, thinking, and emotional relations to problems of behavior adjustment, group relations, and behavior modification, by persons trained in psychology for compensation or other personal gain. The application of principles includes but is not limited to counseling and the use of psychological remedial measures with persons, in groups or individually, with adjustment or emotional problems in the areas of work, family, school, and personal relationships; measuring and testing personality, intelligence, aptitudes, public opinion, attitudes, and skills; and the teaching of such subject matter, and the conducting of research on the problems relating to human behavior. 7. “Prescribing psychologist” means a licensed psychologist who holds a valid prescription certificate. 8. “Prescription certificate” means a document issued by the board to a licensed psychologist that permits the holder to prescribe psychotropic medication pursuant to this chapter. 9. “Psychotropic medication” means a medicine that shall not be dispensed or administered without a prescription and that has been explicitly approved by the federal food and drug administration for the treatment of a mental disorder, as defined by the most recent version of the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders published by the American psychiatric association or the most recent version of the international classification of diseases. “Psychotropic medication” does not include narcotics. [C75, 77, 79, 81, §154B.1] 2016 Acts, ch 1112, §6; 2017 Acts, ch 29, §44; 2018 Acts, ch 1026, §54; 2023 Acts, ch 33, §1; 2024 Acts, ch 1170, §495 Referred to in §148.13B, 154B.14 Wed Dec 10 23:04:51 2025 Iowa Code 2026, Section 154B.1 (23, 0)