The Final Rule includes a safe harbor for certain physician and practitioner recruitment activities as codified at 42 C.F.R. 1001.952(n). The final safe harbor protects certain payments made for the purposes of inducing a physician or practitioner to locate his or her primary place of practice in an urban or rural Health Professional Service Area ("HPSA") for that physician or practitioner’s specialty. The final safe harbor has been expanded to protect the recruitment activities of hospitals and health care entities in both urban and rural HPSAs but no longer protects the recruitment activities of rural hospitals or health care entities outside those areas designated as HPSAs.
HPSAs are those urban and rural geographic areas, population groups, and facilities designated by the Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration’s Bureau of Primary Health Care as exhibiting a shortage of health professionals in a specific specialty area. Recruitment
