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Utah Health Professional Shortage Areas

What is a Health Professional Shortage Area?
A health professional shortage area (HPSA) is a geographic area, population group, or medical facility that has been designated by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as having a shortage of health professionals. There are HPSAs for prmary health care (shortage of primary care clinicians), dental health (shortage of hdental health professionals), and mental health (shortage of mental health professionals). HPSAs are assigned a numerical score based on the level of need.
What is a Medically Underserved Area?
A medically underserved area (MUA) may be a whole county or a group of contiguous counties, a group of county or civil divisions or a group of urban census tracts that has been designated by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in which residents have a shortage of personal health services.
What is a Medically Underserved Population?
A medically underserved populations (MUPs) may include groups of persons who face economic, cultural or linguistic barriers to health care and has been designated by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
To view the federal Office of Shortage Designation information on HPSAs, MUAs, and MUPs, please CLICK HERE!
If you would like to FIND if a location (address, city, and/or county) are located in a federally designated area (including Health Professional Shortage Area, Medically Underserved Area, Medically Underserved Population). Please CLICK HERE!
- For general information on Utah's Health Professional Shortage Area designations activities, you can review the Health Professional Shortage Area Fact Sheet.
- Utah Dental Health Professional Shortage Area Maps
- Utah Mental Health Professional Shortage Area Maps
- Utah Primary Care (Medical) Health Professional Shortage Area Maps
- Utah
Medically Underserved Areas/Populations Maps
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Shortage Designation Branch
The Division of Shortage Designation has become the Shortage Designation Branch of the National Center for Workforce Analysis (NCWA) in the Bureau of Health Professions (BHPr).
Shortage designations are based on the evaluation of criteria established through regulation to identify geographic areas or population groups with a shortage of primary health care services. There are two types of shortage designations, each linked to a federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) activity or function. The shortage designations are:
- Health professional shortage area (HPSA) designation, which is a prerequisite to apply for National Health Service Corps (NHSC) recruitment assistance. The HPSA designation criteria includes primary medical care, mental health, and dental care.
- Medically underserved areas/populations (MUA/Ps) designation, which is a prerequisite to requesting grant awards to plan, develop, and operate a community health center under section 330 of the Public Health Service Act.
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