Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)

General Information:

The Federal Government has developed criteria for designating areas of the country as underserved. These areas have less than a generally minimum number of clinicians (physicians, dentists and mental health workers) per thousand population. These areas are called Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAS). The Primary Care HPSA designation allows sites within the area to apply for National Health Service Corps (NHSC) recruitment assistance, the J-1 Visa Waiver Program and Rural Health Clinic status. An area or facility can also apply for Mental Health or Dental Health HPSA designation.

Health Professional shortage Areas (HPSAs) may have shortages of primary medical care, dental or mental health providers and may be urban or rural areas, population groups or medical or other public facilities.

General Definition of HPSA

A health professional shortage area (HPSA) is a geographic area, population group, or medical facility that has been designated by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services as having a shortage of health professionals. There are HPSAs for primary health care (shortage of primary health care clinicians), dental health (shortage of dental health professionals), and mental health (shortage of mental health professionals). HPSAs are assigned a numerical score based on level of need.

Why is HPSA Designation Important?

The National Health Service Corps (NHSC) works with communities in which the need is greatest - those that have been designated by the Federal Government as having a shortage of health professionals. To ensure that the Nation's most underserved areas receive support, a community or site must be located in and serving the population of a designated HPSA before it can initiate the process of obtaining NHSC recruitment assistance.

Who Makes the Designations?

The Federal Government makes the Health Professional Shortage Area designations.

What are some of the National Health Service Corps' Accomplishments?

Since, 1972, the NHSC has provided more than 27,000 health care clinicians - primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse-midwives, dentists, and other clinicians - to community-based systems of health care throughout the United States and its territories.

General Definition of Designations - MUA and MUP

MUA:

Medically Underserved Areas (MUAs) may be a whole county or a group of contiguous counties, a group of country or civil divisions or a group of urban census tracts in which residents have a shortage of personal health services.

MUP:

Medically Underserved (MUPs) may include groups of persons who face economic, cultural or linguistic barriers to health care.