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news
Proposed Rule: Instead of issuing a final
regulation as the next step, the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services will issue a new
Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for further review
and public comment prior to issuing a final rule.
( Federal Register Notice, 7-23-2008) |
The Health Resources and Services Administration
Shortage Designation Branch develops shortage designation
criteria and uses them to decide whether or not a
geographic area, population group or facility is a
Health Professional Shortage Area or a Medically Underserved
Area or Population.
| Health Professional Shortage Areas |
HPSAs may be designated as having a shortage of primary
medical care, dental or mental health providers. They
may be urban or rural areas, population groups or
medical or other public facilities.
As of September 30, 2008, there are:
- 6,033 Primary Care HPSAs with
64 million people living in them. It would take
16,336 practitioners to meet their need for primary
care providers (a population to practitioner ratio
of 2,000:1).
- 4,048 Dental HPSAs with 48 million
people living in them. It would take 9,432 practitioners
to meet their need for dental providers (a population
to practitioner ratio of 3,000:1).
- 3,059 Mental Health HPSAs with
77 million people living in them. It would take
5,145 practitioners to meet their need for mental
health providers (a population to practitioner ratio
of 10,000:1).
| Medically Underserved Areas/Populations
|
Medically Underserved Areas (MUA) may be
a whole county or a group of contiguous counties,
a group of county or civil divisions or a group of
urban census tracts in which residents have a shortage
of personal health services.
Medically Underserved Populations (MUPs)
may include groups of persons who face economic, cultural
or linguistic barriers to health care.
Contact: sdb@hrsa.gov
or 1-888-275-4772. Press option 1, then option 2
Page last updated: November 5, 2008
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