The Florida Primary Care Office is the state’s liaison to the shortage designation branch of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). 

The purpose of the office is to improve outpatient primary care, mental health, and dental services by assessing the workforce availability to meet the needs of underserved populations throughout the community. Examples of underserved populations are the uninsured, underinsured, low-income, homeless, or temporary farmworkers. Shortage designation identifies an area, population, or facility experiencing a shortage of health care services. There are several types of shortage designations: 

Health Professional Shortage Area

Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) are defined in section 332 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 254e to include: geographic areas, population groups, and facilities with shortages of health professionals.

  • Geographic HPSAs have a shortage of providers for an entire group of people within a defined geographic area
  • Population HPSAs have a shortage of providers for a specific group of people within a defined geographic area (e.g., low-income, migrant farm workers)
  • Facility HPSAs are public or non-profit private medical facilities serving a population or geographic area with a shortage of providers and include: correctional facilities (medium and maximum security federal and state correctional and youth detention facilities), state mental hospitals (with a shortage of psychiatrists – mental health designations only), and automatic facility HPSAs (based on statute or through regulation).
  • Maternity Care Health Professional Target Area (MCTA) is an area within an existing Primary Care HPSA that is experiencing a shortage of maternity health care professionals. 

Programs that use HPSAs or MCTAs: 

Requesting a new HPSA or an update to an existing HPSA 

The HPSA Request Form should be completed and submitted to the Florida Department of Health’s Primary Care Office for area and population HPSAs. The request will be reviewed, and you will be notified when the status of the review is changed. 

If the request is to change an existing low-income HPSA to a geographic HPSA, if the change would result in a lower HPSA score, the request will be denied. 

Medically Underserved Area/Population

MUAs and MUPs identify geographic areas and populations with a lack of access to primary care services.

These designations help establish health maintenance organizations or community health centers. MUAs have a shortage of primary care health services within geographic areas such as:

  • An entire county
  • A group of neighboring counties
  • A group of urban census tracts
  • A group of county or civil divisions

MUPs have a shortage of primary care health services for a specific population subset within a geographic area. These groups may face economic, cultural, or language barriers to health care.

Some Examples Include

  • People experiencing homelessness
  • People who are low-income
  • People who are eligible for Medicaid
  • Native Americans
  • Migrant farmworkers

Programs That Use MUA/MUPs

  • Health Center Program 
  • CMS Rural Health Clinic Program 
  • Physician National Interest Waivers 
Requesting a New HPSA or MUA/P Designation or Updating an Existing One

Before submitting a request, first check to see if a Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or Medically Underserved Area/Population (MUA/P) already exists in your area. Use these HRSA tools to search current designations:

Find HPSA By Address
Find a MUA/P by State and County

This helps confirm whether your location or population is already designated (or partially covered), which may affect eligibility or the type of request needed.

For HPSAs (geographic or population designations)

Complete a HPSA Request Form for a new designation or to update an existing one.

For MUA/Ps

Complete a MUA/P Request Form for a new designation or to update an existing one.

All requests will be reviewed by the Primary Care Office, and you will be notified when the status of the review changes.

If the request is to change an existing low-income HPSA to a geographic HPSA and the change would result in a lower HPSA score, the request will be denied. For MUP requests, supporting documentation may be required.