Designating places and populations as medically underserved: a proposal for a new approach.

This article describes the development of a theory-based, data-driven replacement for the Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) and Medically Underserved Area (MUA) designation systems. Data describing utilization of primary medical care and the distribution of practitioners were used to develop estimates of the effects of demographic and community characteristics on use of primary medical care. A scoring system was developed that estimates each community's effective access to primary care. This approach was reviewed and contributed to by stakeholder groups. The proposed formula would designate over 90% of current geographic and low-income population HPSA designations. The scalability of the method allows for adjustment for local variations in need and was considered acceptable by stakeholder groups. A data-driven, theory-based metric to calculate relative need for geographic areas and geographically-bounded special populations can be developed and used. Its use, however, requires careful explanation to and support from affected groups.