Interactive decision tools

Turn a local access question into a clearer next step.

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Data Warehouse (August 2026), these tools apply published federal criteria and the current shortage-area reference to a household, workforce, or community question. Choose a tool by the decision at hand, then see the inputs, comparison, and limitation behind its result. Each estimate is planning context, not medical advice, an eligibility determination, or an official HRSA designation.

Choose by question

Five paths, one evidence boundary.

Start with the decision you are trying to make, not a federal acronym. The tool cards name the inputs required and the limit that keeps each answer honest.

Inputs stay in your browser. These tools provide planning context, not medical advice, an eligibility determination, or an official HRSA designation.

Tool directory

Start with the question in front of you.

How the reference data is used
  1. 01

    Coverage Affordability Check

    Can this household access coverage through Medicaid or Marketplace savings?

    Estimate an ACA premium-subsidy pathway and see the Medicaid-expansion context for a household.

    Have ready: Household income, size, and state
  2. 02

    HPSA Score Lookup

    Where does this HPSA score sit nationally, and does a community clear the ratio threshold?

    Place a score in the national designation distribution by discipline, then optionally screen the published ratio criterion. Unofficial placement and estimate, not a designation.

    Have ready: Published HPSA score (and optionally population, provider FTEs, poverty rate)
  3. 03

    NHSC Loan Repayment Amount by HPSA Score

    What approximate NHSC loan repayment amount matches this site score and service commitment?

    Apply published NHSC award tiers to estimate a loan-repayment amount range by HPSA score.

    Have ready: HPSA score, service type, and contract length
  4. 04

    Provider Gap Calculator

    How many additional primary-care providers would close a local gap?

    Translate a population-to-provider ratio into a planning estimate for the additional FTE capacity required.

    Have ready: Population, current providers, and a target ratio
  5. 05

    County Shortage Designation Profile

    How does my county compare on HRSA shortage designations and severity scores?

    See HRSA shortage designations by care type, primary-care severity score, MUA status, state and national rank, and 4 peer counties with a similar shortage profile.

    Have ready: State and county selection

What a shortage lookup can verify

Every county has a base entry, not every discipline is designated everywhere

These tools query the same 3,291-county HRSA corpus used on county and state pages, but shortage designations are not uniform: a lookup for a county with no dental designation returns no dental result, even though the county itself is always in the corpus.

  • Counties in the corpus 100% 3,291

    Every U.S. county with an HRSA-published record loaded.

  • Carries any shortage designation 99% 3,269

    At least one HPSA or MUA designation of any type or discipline.

  • Mental-health HPSA designated 94% 3,084

    A lookup for a mental-health gap returns no result outside these counties.

  • Primary-care HPSA designated 89% 2,935

    The discipline most tools on this hub query by default.

  • Dental HPSA designated 83% 2,747

    A lookup for a dental gap returns no result outside these counties. The narrowest discipline in this corpus.

Source: HRSA Data Warehouse HPSA and MUA designation tables, county-level.

Evidence before estimates

Know what an answer means before you act on it.

Source context comes from the HRSA Data Warehouse. Each calculator describes its source, vintage, and limitation beside the result.

According to the August 2026 Health Resources and Services Administration Data Warehouse release, the figures on this directory come from its published designation and provider-need reference.

For a binding designation or benefits decision, verify the outcome with the appropriate state office, Marketplace, or federal program. Browse the state rankings, the shortage map, or our guide to understanding HPSAs for supporting context.

What to do with these tools

Each estimator answers one decision at a time; 3,386 primary-care HPSAs and the county-level detail behind them live elsewhere on the site.

These tools apply published federal criteria to the inputs you provide; they are planning context, not medical advice, an eligibility determination, or an official HRSA designation.

Source: HRSA Data Warehouse PlainHealthAccess is not affiliated with HRSA or any government agency

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.

Every figure on PlainHealthAccess is rendered directly from HRSA source data, no number is typed in by an editor. Each calculator runs published federal criteria entirely in your browser; none submits your inputs to a server. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, review the public data changelog, or report a data issue for this page.