There are nearly 6,100 total primary care health professional shortage area designations in the United States, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's most recent report.
HPSA designations are used to identify areas and population groups within the country that are experiencing a shortage of primary medical, dental and mental health professionals. HPSAs are designated for primary medical care by computing the population to provider ratio which must be at least 3,500 to 1 (or 3,000 to 1 if there are unusually high needs in the community).
The following 15 states need the most health practitioners in order to achieve a population-to-primary care physician ratio that would no longer qualify for HPSA designation.
1. Florida — 916 practitioners needed to remove HPSA designation
2. California — 652
3. New York — 612
4. Texas — 514
5. Illinois — 442
6. Arizona — 415
7. Missouri — 363
8. Georgia — 277
9. Mississippi — 230
10. Washington — 228
11. Michigan — 205
12. North Carolina — 189
13. New Mexico — 163
14. Maryland — 160
15. Alabama — 158
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