PlainHealthAccess guides
PlainHealthAccess publishes seven HRSA-sourced guides on Health Professional Shortage Areas and Medically Underserved Areas: what designations mean, how scores work, and what the federal records cannot show about appointments or care quality. Use a guide for definitions, then state or county pages for local designation counts.
Source-grounded guides to federal healthcare shortage designations. Each one draws on HRSA's Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area records to explain what a designation means, how to compare like records, and what requires a separate current source. Start with whichever question brought you here.
Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) Explained
What an HPSA is, how HRSA designates shortage areas, scores them, and what federal records can and cannot show.
Healthcare Deserts vs HRSA Shortage Designations
Healthcare desert is informal shorthand. Map it to HRSA HPSA and Medically Underserved Area records, and their evidence limits.
Mental Health HPSA: What HRSA Designations Show
What a mental health professional shortage area is in HRSA records, how to compare counties and states, and what the records cannot show.
How to Find Healthcare in a Shortage Area
How to use HPSA records and official directories without treating a shortage designation as medical advice or proof of availability.
Dentist Shortage in America
What the dentist shortage means in HRSA dental HPSA designations and how to verify local dental services.
Rural Healthcare Access: What HPSA Designations Can Show
How HRSA shortage designations compare recorded provider-supply gaps across rural counties and states, with clear evidence limits.
The US Primary Care Shortage: What HRSA Data Reveals
What HRSA primary-care shortage designations measure, their national context, and what they cannot establish about personal care.
How are these guides researched and sourced?
Our guides draw on public data from HRSA, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and its Data Warehouse. Every figure is sourced. Statistics, shortage designations, and provider ratios come directly from those datasets, referenced inline.
The aim is plain language without over-reading the source. We explain designation criteria and comparisons that HRSA records support, flag the limits of those records, and direct readers to current official or local sources for services, coverage, eligibility, and care decisions.
Download the HRSA shortage-designation extract cited on this page: hrsa-shortage-designations.csv or the JSON distribution (CC BY 4.0). Method notes live on /methodology and /data.