Qualified physician: where you can serve the 180 annual hours

The Qualified Physician decree is a tax incentive under the Incentives Code, and it carries a requirement of one hundred eighty annual hours. The law already allowed meeting them by an alternative route — services under contract with the Government Health Plan, where the work is paid — and Act 128-2026 opened that same route to four more entities.

Qualified physicians under the Incentives Code who must meet the one hundred eighty annual hour requirement of Section 2023.02(b). Who qualifies as a Qualified Physician and what else the decree requires is in Act 60-2019, which we did not read.

• Meeting the one hundred eighty (180) hour requirement that Section 2023.02(b) sets for the Qualified Physician decree.Verified against the official source
• For the alternative route: providing medical or dental services as part of a services contract with the Government Health Plan of Puerto Rico, or with one of the four entities Act 128-2026 added.Verified against the official source

• This Act publishes no document list and no form: it amends a substantive requirement of the Incentives Code. The decree application is governed by Act 60-2019 and its regulations, which we did not read.

1. 1

   Step 1: Know the alternative route is paid

   This is the most misunderstood part. The text says that under this modality the Qualified Physician must meet the one hundred eighty hour requirement, but the work does not have to be offered free of charge, and may be offered as an employee or independent contractor of the contracting person or entity. The hours are still one hundred eighty; what changes is that they need not be unpaid.

2. 2

   Step 2: Know the five bodies that count

   The first was already in the law: a services contract with the Government Health Plan of Puerto Rico. Act 128-2026 added four more, and names them: the Corporación del Fondo del Seguro del Estado, the Administración de Compensaciones por Accidentes de Automóviles, the Administración de Servicios de Salud Mental y Contra la Adicción, and the Correctional Health Program of the Department of Correction and Rehabilitation. The text joins them with “and/or”, so it does not require picking only one.

3. 3

   Step 3: It is an alternative, not the base requirement

   The text begins with “In the alternative”. That is, there is a principal requirement in Section 2023.02(b) that this modality is a way out of. What that principal requirement is we cannot say: the law quotes it with ellipses and we did not read Act 60-2019. If you are planning how to meet your decree, that is the source to look at.

4. 4

   Step 4: It is already in force

   Article 2 provides that the Act takes effect immediately upon approval. There is no transition period and no pending regulation written into the text.

The Qualified Physician decree is applied for under the Incentives Code, administered by the Department of Economic Development and Commerce. The services contracts are entered into with the Government Health Plan or with the four entities the law names. This Act publishes no office or portal.

• Believing the hours went down: they are still one hundred eighty. What changed is where and under what conditions they may be served.
• Thinking every community hour must be unpaid: under this modality the text expressly says the work does not have to be offered free of charge.
• Taking this guide as the decree requirement list: it describes an alternative inside a requirement whose base text we did not read.
• Assuming any public entity counts: the law names the Government Health Plan and four more entities, and that is the list.
• Expecting regulations: the Act took effect immediately and orders no rulemaking.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio (DDEC)

  DDEC

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov