What is a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA)?
HPSAs are defined service areas that demonstrate a critical shortage of primary care physicians, dentists or mental health providers. A HPSA can be a distinct geographic area (such as a country, grouping, census tract, township or borough), a specific population group within a defined geographic area (such as the population under 200 percent of poverty) or a specific public or non-profit facility (such as a prison).
What is a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or Medically Underserved Population (MUP)?
MUA and MUP (MUA/P) identify areas or populations with a shortage of health care services. Documentation of shortages include several factors, in addition to the availability of health care providers. These factors include infant mortality rate, poverty rate and percentage of population aged 65 and older.
How does the Pennsylvania Department of Health assist with applications?
The Primary Care Office generates applications by using the Shortage Designation Management System. This software provides a comprehensive analysis of demographic data sets, health provider survey data and geographic attributes to generate applications. Office staff work with community partners to determine if an area or population meets federal criteria for designation.
Shortage Designations Lists
- Find Shortage Areas (hrsa.gov)
- PA’s Primary Care HPSAs
- PA’s Mental Health HPSAs
- PA’s Dental Health HPSAs
- PA’s Federally Qualified Health Centers and Look-a-Likes
- PA’s Rural Health Centers
- PA’s Correctional Facilities
- PA’s Medically Underserved Areas and Populations
Source Data Updates (SDUs) and the National Shortage Designation Update (NSDU)
The Annual Source Data Update (SDU) – This is the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA’s) annual update of source data within the Shortage Designation Management System (SDMS). These annual updates involve the national, standardized data sets including: (1) The U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey Data, (2) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data, and (3) Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) data
SDUs are announced and implemented by HRSA, and they usually occur once each year. HRSA has an SDU planned for March 15, 2025. Thirty-five days prior to the implementation of the SDU, HRSA imposes a “black-out” period leading up to the SDU. During this period, applications for HPSAs are not designed or submitted. Shortage designations are not reviewed and updated during annual the SDU process, however, updated SDMS source data can and often do impact shortage designation profiles/eligibility for future reference.
The National Shortage Designation Update (NSDU) – This is the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA’s) periodic review and update of shortage designations, nationwide. This review and update is done using standardized data sets, and it includes review of Geographic, Population, and Automatic Facility Health Professional Shortage Areas (Auto-HPSAs). The designated HPSA’s rational service areas (RSAs) and contiguous areas (CAs) are reviewed and updated as necessary.
NSDUs are announced and implemented by HRSA, and they usually occur about once every three years. Currently, HRSA is planning an NSDU for a specific date yet to be determined, in the month of September 2025. It is important to note that these updates usually produce some degree of impact on the state’s shortage designations. Some HPSAs will likely be set to the status of “proposed for withdrawal.”
The following timeline summarizes the national HPSA update and actions the Primary Care Office will take.
More Information
HRSA Data Warehouse: data.HRSA.gov - Find Shortage Areas
Physician Licensure Surveys – Your Role in Addressing Workforce Shortages
Contact Information
Primary Care Office
Pennsylvania Department of Health
Room 1031
Health & Human Services Building
625 Forster Street
Harrisburg, PA 17120
Phone: 717-772-5298
Fax: 717-705-6525