HEALTH PROFESSIONAL SHORTAGE AREA (HPSA)

Federal Law permits special payment for professional services provided by physicians in federally designated geographic Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs). Physicians whoprovide covered Medicare services in rural or urban HPSAs are eligible for a 10-percent incentive payment.

Eligibility for the incentive payment is based on provider specialty and the location where the services were rendered, not necessarily where the physician office
maintains.
AQ MODIFIER:

-AQ Physician providing a service in an unlisted Health Professional Shortage Area
Submit modifier –AQ in the following instances:
When you provide services in zip code areas that do not fall entirely within a designated full county HPSA bonus area.
When you provide services in a zip code area that falls partially within a full county HPSA but is not considered to be in that county based on the USPS dominance decision.
When you provide services in a zip code area that falls partially within a non-full county HPSA.
When you provide services in a zip code area that was not included in the automated file of HPSA areas based on the date of the data run used to create the file.

Do not submit modifier -AQ in the following instances:
Your global code contains a technical component
You are submitting a technical-only component code