Rural Health Policy - Eligibility

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About Geographic Eligibility for Rural Health Grant Programs

The Office of Rural Health Policy has issued a new list of areas eligible for Rural Health Grant Programs based on 2000 Census data. This list represents the recent modification of the Goldsmith Modification.

In June 2003, OMB published a new list of Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) which are made up of Metropolitan and Micropolitan statistical areas. For more information on how Metropolitan and Micropolitan Areas are designated, see the Census Bureau's webpage Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas. All counties that are not identified as part of a Metropolitan Area are included on the eligibility list. Counties that are part of a Micropolitan Area are eligible for Rural Health grants.

Due to the fact that entire counties are designated as Metropolitan when, in fact, large parts of many counties may be rural in nature, the Office of Rural Health Policy has sought an alternative method of looking at sub-county areas of these Metropolitan counties that would allow sections to be designated rural. The Goldsmith modification was originally developed and used to identify rural Census tracts in large Metropolitan counties.

The Office of Rural Health Policy has funded the development of the Rural Urban Commuting Area Codes (RUCAs), by the WWAMI Rural Research Center at the University of Washington and the Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service, to designate "Rural" areas within MAs. Census tracts with RUCA codes 4 through 10 are considered rural for the purposes of Rural Health grants. For more information, see Rural-urban commuting area codes (RUCAs).

Within the Metropolitan counties, all Census Tracts that are assigned a RUCA code of 4-10 are eligible for Rural Health grants. In addition, Census Tracts within MAs with RUCA codes 2 and 3 that are larger than 400 square miles and have population density of less than 30 people per square mile are also considered rural.