Shortage Designations

Throughout the U.S., there are geographic areas, populations, and facilities with too few primary care, dental and mental health providers and services. Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Areas/Populations (MUA/P) are designations that help prioritize and focus our resources to help meet the health care needs of medically underserved rural and urban areas of Minnesota. The Minnesota Office of Rural Health and Primary Care helps underserved sites determine service areas, provides statistical information and prepares applications for federal shortage area designation.

Federal Shortage Designation Project

The federal Shortage Designation Project, which began in 2014, is an effort to modernize the shortage designation process and improve transparency, accountability and parity in the HPSA designation and scoring process. One component of the project is to update existing geographic, population and some facility HPSA designations using national, standardized data sets directly from the source, such as National Provider Index (NPI), American Community Survey and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The first National Shortage Designation Update based on the new process will occur in July 2017. ORHPC staff are continuing to provide data, local context, and input to federal staff as these changes are discussed and implemented to ensure that all HPSA designations are accurate and reflect the reality of provider shortage in Minnesota. ORHPC plans to notify providers in areas where major changes to HPSA designations will occur after the scores have been officially determined.

Minnesota Health Professional Shortage Areas

Dental

• Rural Dental HPSA Designation, 2024 (PDF)
• Metro Dental HPSA Designations, 2024 (PDF)

Primary

• Health Professional Shortage Areas - Primary Care, Minnesota, 2024 (PDF)
• Primary Care HPSAs in Minneapolis and St. Paul, 2024 (PDF)

Mental Health

• Minnesota Rational Service Areas - Mental Health: Geographic HPSA Designations, 2024 (PDF)
• Minnesota Rational Service Areas - Mental Health: Geographic HPSA Designations Metro Area, 2024 (PDF)

HRSA Information on HPSA

The What Is Shortage Designation? | Bureau of Health Workforce (hrsa.gov) website has more information on HPSA criteria as well as a searchable database of designated shortage areas by county or by address.

HPSA Find (hrsa.gov)

Minnesota Medically Underserved Areas/Populations

Use the searchable database on the HRSA website to find Medically Underserved Areas/Populations (MUA/Ps) by county or by address.

HRSA's Medically Underserved Areas/Populations site has more information on MUA and MUP criteria and guidelines.

Contact

For more information, please contact:
health.orhpc@state.mn.us