Designation of medically underserved populations and health professional shortage areas--HRSA. Proposed rules.

The rules proposed below would consolidate the processes for designating medically underserved populations (MUPs) and health professional shortage areas (HPSAs), designations that are used in several DHHS programs. The purpose is to improve the way underserved areas are designated by incorporating up-to-date measures of health status and access barriers and eliminating inconsistencies and duplication of effort. The intended effect is to reduce the effort and data burden on States and communities by simplifying and automating the design process as much as possible, while maximizing the use of technology. The proposed rules involve major changes to both the MUP and the primary care HPSA designation criteria, which have the effect of making primary care HPSAs a subset of the MUPs. No changes are proposed with respect to the criteria for designating dental and mental health HPSAs. Podiatric, vision care, pharmacy, and veterinary care HPSA designations would be abolished under the rules proposed below.