Health Professional Shortage Areas – Dental Care

Methodology

A Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) is a designation given by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in the United States to identify geographic areas, populations, or facilities that lack sufficient health care professionals to meet the health needs of the community. HPSAs are categorized into three main types based on the specific type of health professional shortage:

Types of HPSA

• Primary Care HPSA: Areas with a shortage of primary care physicians, including family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics, and gynecology.
• Dental Health HPSA: Areas with a shortage of dental health professionals, such as general and pediatric dentists.
• Mental Health HPSA: Areas with a shortage of mental health providers, including psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurse specialists, and marriage and family therapists.

Criteria for HPSA Designation

To qualify as an HPSA, areas or populations must meet specific criteria established by the HRSA. These criteria typically include factors like:

• Provider-to-Population Ratios: The ratio of health care providers to the population falls below a defined threshold.
• High Needs Population: Factors such as poverty levels, infant mortality, and high elderly or low-income populations.
• Travel Time or Distance: Long travel distances or time to the nearest source of care.

Types of HPSA Designations

• Geographic Area: A shortage exists for the entire population in a defined area (e.g., a rural county).
• Population Group: A specific population group (e.g., low-income individuals or Medicaid-eligible populations) within an area is underserved.
• Facility: Facilities such as community health centers, correctional facilities, or rural health clinics have insufficient providers.

This indicator reports the total population in the report area that is living in a Health Professional Shortage Area, regardless of the degree of shortage, or whether the HPSA covers the entire geographic area or a population subgroup. Indicator data are based on the following calculation:

The population figures used in this calculation are from the 2019 American Community Survey 5-year Estimates.

1. HPSA Designation populations may exceed total census populations in areas with large transient populations as follows:

• Seasonal residents, i.e., those who maintain a residence in the area but inhabit it for only 2 to 8 months per year, may be included but must be weighted in proportion to the fraction of the year they are present in the area.
• Other tourists (non-resident) may be included in an area’s population but only with a weight of 0.25, using the following formula: Effective tourist contribution to population = 0.25 x (fraction of year tourists are present in area) x (average daily number of tourists during portion of year that tourists are present).
• Migratory workers and their families may be included in an area’s population, using the following formula: Effective migrant contribution to population = (fraction of year migrants are present in area) x (average daily number of migrants during portion of year that migrants are present)

For additional information, including designation procedures and access to the original data, please visit the HRSA Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) web page.