The Physician Shortage: Projections, Causes, and Solutions
A Continued Maldistribution
When it comes to physician supply, not all areas of the country are equal.
In addition to an emerging physician shortage, there is a long-standing maldistribution of physicians in the United States, with fewer doctors practicing in rural and inner-city areas than in other areas.
There are now more than 7,700 Health Care Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) for primary care in the United States, about double the number identified by HRSA 15 years ago ( HRSA: Designated HPSA Statistics ). These are areas with less than one primary care physician per 3,500 people (or less than one primary care physician per 3000 people in designated “high need” areas). Approximately 76 million Americans live in these primary care shortage areas, where only 44% of primary care needs are being met. It would require 13,254 additional primary care providers to end the shortage designations, according to HRSA. Approximately 67% of primary care HPSAs are in rural area, with the remainder mostly located in economically challenged urban areas. There are now over 6,100 HPSAs for mental health nationwide, in which 122 million people live. Mental health HPSAs are defined as areas where the population to provider ratio is 30,000 or more to 1 (20,000 to 1 if there are unusually high needs in the community).
HRSA indicates it would take 6,167 mental health providers to remove the HPSA designations.
Primary Care HPSAs
Mental Health HPSAs
Total HPSAs
7,710
Total HPSAs
6,406
Population
76 million
Population
122 million
Providers needed
13,254
Providers needed
6,167
Source: https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas
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