Access to Care – Mental Health
This indicator reports the number of mental health providers in the report area as a rate per 100,000 total area population. Mental health providers are defined as psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, counselors, marriage and family therapists, and mental health providers that treat alcohol and other drug use, as well as advanced practice nurses specializing in mental health care. Data from the 2023 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) National Provider Identifier (NPI) downloadable file are used in the 2025 County Health Rankings.
Note: Data are suppressed for counties with population greater than 1,000 and 0 mental health providers.
Source
Accessed via County Health Rankings.
Source Description
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) provides basic information about all organization and individual providers with a National Provider Identifier (NPI). The National Provider Identifier (NPI) is unique identification number for health care providers, including both organizations and individuals. Each month, CMS provides an updated data file available for download which contains FOIA-disclosable NPPES health care provider information, including name, credential, practice location address, and practice type based on multiple (primary, secondary, tertiary, etc.) taxonomy codes. Additional information about the NPPES downloadable file can be found here.
Methodology
Access to mental health provider data was acquired from the University of Wisconsin’s County Health Rankings (CHR). This measure represents the ratio of the county population to the number of mental health providers including psychiatrists, psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, counselors, and advanced practice nurses specializing in mental health care. For more information, please review the County Health Rankings Mental Health Providers indicator information.
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