WA · Healthcare shortage profile
Yakima County, WA
Peak severity leads this reading: Yakima County's highest active HPSA score is 25.0, clearing HRSA's 17-point high-priority line. Population 256,728.
- Active HPSAs
- 57
- Population
- 256,728
- Peak shortage score
- 25.0
- MUA Index
- 60.7
Heavy-burden verdict
According to current HRSA Data Warehouse records, Yakima County ranks among the most underserved counties in the country - 57 active HPSA designations, more than 99% of the 3,289 real US counties, with primary care the deepest gap.
- 57
- Active HPSA designations
- 19
- Dental shortages
- 25
- Peak severity score (of 26)
- Top 1%
- US counties by volume
Key findings
What the HRSA Data Warehouse does not surface for Yakima County, WA on its own pages , computed from the retained designation mirror as of 2026-08-15. Each line carries its own denominator so it can be quoted as it stands.
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Peak HPSA score 25.0 clears HRSA's 17-point high-priority line.
Scores at or above 17 on the 0–25/26 scales open NHSC placement priority for the matching provider type; eligibility still follows the designated area, not the county boundary alone.
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Closing Yakima County's active designations would take about 43 additional clinician FTEs, with dental the largest gap.
HRSA providers_needed summed once per HPSA id (no double-count across status rows): 18 primary care, 6.4 mental health, 19 dental. This is the federal gap estimate, not a headcount of practising clinicians.
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33.3% of Yakima County's 57 active designations are primary care.
Discipline mix from designated HPSA records only: 19 primary care, 19 mental health, 19 dental (denominator 57).
Dense ZCTA lattice over Yakima County
Yakima County intersects 22 Census ZCTAs, above the 15-ZIP dense-tercile cut. Shortage designations still attach at the county (or smaller HPSA) grain; the ZIP list is geography, not a second severity score.
Largest land-share ZCTAs in this county
10 additional ZCTAs intersect this county in the crosswalk (ordered by land share).
Source: Census ZCTA–county relationship file joined to this portal's county FIPS set. As of 2026-08-15.
Corpus placement
Active-designation volume placement
According to current HRSA Data Warehouse records, Yakima County carries 57 active designations, above 99% of real US counties. Use the state peer line below before treating the national percentile as a local access verdict.
State peer position. Yakima County sits among the top three county rank positions in WA, at rank 2 of 39. Ties share a rank.
Computed from current designated HPSA rows for every five-digit county FIPS. See the placement methodology.
Healthcare shortage designations from HRSA. FIPS: 53077. Population: 256,728.
Medically Underserved Area
Peak severity scores
Current designated records only. Scores range 0–25 (primary/mental health), 0–26 (dental). Higher = greater need. What counts as a high score?
Highest-severity HPSA designations
Showing the 40 most-severe of 57 active (designated) HPSAs in Yakima County, ranked by HRSA shortage score.
| Name | Type | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Yakima Neighborhood Health Services | dental | 25.0 |
| Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic | dental | 25.0 |
| Community Health OF Central Washington | dental | 25.0 |
| Community Health OF Central Washington | mental_health | 23.0 |
| Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic | mental_health | 22.0 |
| White Swan Tribal Health Clinic | dental | 22.0 |
| Yakima Neighborhood Health Services | mental_health | 20.0 |
| Yakama Indian Health Clinic | dental | 20.0 |
| White Swan Tribal Health Clinic | mental_health | 19.0 |
| White Swan Dental Clinic | dental | 19.0 |
| White Swan Tribal Health Clinic | primary_care | 18.0 |
| Community Health OF Central Washington | primary_care | 18.0 |
| Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic | primary_care | 18.0 |
| Wapato Health Station | mental_health | 18.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 18.0 |
| Yakama Indian Health Clinic | mental_health | 18.0 |
| White Swan Dental Clinic | mental_health | 18.0 |
| Yakama Indian Health Clinic | primary_care | 17.0 |
| White Swan Dental Clinic | primary_care | 17.0 |
| LI - Yakima County | mental_health | 17.0 |
| Vintage Valley Family Medicine | mental_health | 17.0 |
| Wapato Health Station | dental | 17.0 |
| Astria Health Center | dental | 17.0 |
| LI - Yakima County | dental | 17.0 |
| Wapato Health Station | primary_care | 16.0 |
| Yakima Neighborhood Health Services | primary_care | 16.0 |
| Prosser Memorial Health Grandview Clinic | mental_health | 16.0 |
| John Hughes Student Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Swofford & Halma Clinic Inc PS | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Mid-Valley Community Clinic PLLC | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Astria Health Center | mental_health | 16.0 |
| Vintage Valley Family Medicine | dental | 15.0 |
| Prosser Memorial Health Grandview Clinic | dental | 15.0 |
| Astria Health Center | dental | 15.0 |
| Mid-Valley Community Clinic PLLC | dental | 15.0 |
| John Hughes Student Health Center | dental | 15.0 |
Heavy-burden reading for Yakima County
Peak severity leads this reading: Yakima County's highest active HPSA score is 25.0, clearing HRSA's 17-point high-priority line. Dental care carries Yakima County's deepest shortage reading, 25.0 on HRSA's 0–26 dental scale, past the 17-point line HRSA uses to open National Health Service Corps placement and enhanced Medicare reimbursement. Primary care reads 18.0 of 25; Mental health reads 23.0 of 25. The county also sits inside a Medically Underserved Area, indexed at 60.7, and the lower the index, the greater the measured need.
Volume places Yakima County above 99% of real US counties (57 active designations: 19 primary care, 19 mental health, 19 dental). Peak severity on the current designated set is 25.0. The table on this page lists the highest-severity records first so a reader can see which named facilities, geographies, or population groups drive that burden without treating the county total as a personal appointment forecast.
Yakima County sits among the top three county rank positions in WA, at rank 2 of 39. Heavy-burden counties are where NHSC placement, Community Health Center grant geography, and related federal instruments concentrate; eligibility still follows the designated area and provider type, not the county boundary alone.
Yakima County designations by care type
Active Health Professional Shortage Area designations in the county, by provider category (high-priority disciplines emphasized).
- Primary care
Primary care
19 designations
- Mental health
Mental health
19 designations
- Dental
Dental
19 designations
Heavy-volume FTE gap in Yakima County
HRSA providers_needed summed once per HPSA id for Yakima County's active designations: about 43 FTE, a federal gap estimate, not a headcount of practising clinicians.
Source: HRSA Data Warehouse, Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) + Medically Underserved Areas/Populations (MUA/P) HPSA primary-care, mental-health, and dental designations for Yakima County, WA · 2026 HRSA designation data updated quarterly; HPSA scores 0-25 (primary/mental) and 0-26 (dental); higher = greater shortage severity. Coverage tiers from U.S. Census ACS PUMS + KFF state tracker.
Acting on a heavy-burden county
Yakima County's shortage designations unlock specific federal programs and comparisons, here is how to act on them.
- Yakima County's 57 active designations make providers here eligible for National Health Service Corps loan repayment, estimate the award and service terms. NHSC estimator
- See how the county's primary care burden compares with the rest of WA before you draw conclusions from a single score. WA overview
- Check whether an area clears HRSA's 3,500:1 population-to-provider threshold with the provider-to-population ratio behind an HPSA score. HPSA score lookup
HPSA scores describe shortage severity within HRSA's designation criteria, not the availability of any individual provider. For a specific appointment, contact a provider or your insurer; use HRSA's current tools to verify a designation.
Counties With a Similar Dental Shortage Score
Other U.S. counties whose active HRSA dental HPSA score is closest to Yakima County's 25.0. This compares the designation score only, not local appointment availability or care quality. Start with Fulton County, GA and Erie County, NY.
Showing 6 of 2744 counties nationally with an active designation this severe.
Counties near Yakima County's dental score of 25.0
One peer set for this severity-led county: nearest active dental HPSA score to 25.0 (severity lead on this page is “YAKIMA NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH SERVICES”).
Fulton County, GA
25.0 dental score · 1,066,710 pop.
Erie County, NY
25.0 dental score · 954,236 pop.
El Paso County, TX
25.0 dental score · 865,657 pop.
Miami-Dade County, FL
25.0 dental score · 2,701,767 pop.
Tarrant County, TX
25.0 dental score · 2,110,640 pop.
Philadelphia County, PA
25.0 dental score · 1,603,797 pop.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does Yakima County's MUA standing sit beside its HPSA records?
- Yes - Yakima County carries an MUA designation (index 60.7; lower = greater measured need) in addition to its HPSA rows. MUA and HPSA are separate HRSA tracks; both can open different federal pathways.
- Which record sets Yakima County's peak score of 25.0?
- "YAKIMA NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH SERVICES" leads the active set (score 25.0; dental; 63,632 people in the service area; designated 09/30/2005). Clearing 17 opens NHSC high-priority placement for the matching provider type on the designated geography. Discipline mix across 57 active rows: 19 primary care, 19 mental health, 19 dental.
- Which other active designations sit under Yakima County's severity reading?
- After "YAKIMA NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH SERVICES", the next active names on this release are "YAKIMA NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH SERVICES", "YAKIMA VALLEY FARM WORKERS CLINIC", "COMMUNITY HEALTH OF CENTRAL WASHINGTON" and "COMMUNITY HEALTH OF CENTRAL WASHINGTON". Provider need (id-de-duped) totals ~43 FTE across disciplines that still carry a gap.
- Which federal pathways follow Yakima County's high-severity geography?
- Yakima County's 57 active designations can open NHSC placement, CHC grants, Medicare bonus and J-1 waivers, eligibility follows the designated area and provider type, not merely the county line around "YAKIMA NEIGHBORHOOD HEALTH SERVICES".
- How does Yakima County's peak severity sit inside WA?
- Yakima County holds 57 active HPSA rows with peak 25.0. Yakima County sits among the top three county rank positions in WA, at rank 2 of 39. Score-nearest national peers appear below when the peer module renders. Score-nearest counties on this release include Fulton County, GA and Erie County, NY.
Source: HRSA Data Warehouse. FIPS: 53077. This county’s designations come from BCD_HPSA_FCT_DET_PC.csv (primary care) , BCD_HPSA_FCT_DET_MH.csv (mental health) and BCD_HPSA_FCT_DET_DH.csv (dental) — download the normalized export on our open data page. PlainHealthAccess is not affiliated with HRSA or any government agency.
HRSA Data Warehouse HPSA + MUA/P records for FIPS 53077 (Yakima County, WA), vintage 2026-08-15. Active designation count 57; peak score 25.0; signature peak score 25.0. This profile is reference material, not professional advice; see methodology.