MUAs identify areas or populations with a shortage of health care services.  Documentation of shortage for MUAs includes several indicators in addition to the availability of health care providers.  These factors include infant mortality rate, poverty rate, and percentage of population aged 65 or over.

Louisiana’s MUA designations are currently being used for various grants including Section 330 grants but cannot be used for the National Health Service Corps or Louisiana’s State Loan Repayment Program or J-1 visa waiver placements.

There is a 30-day mandatory comment period for all applications.  After 30 days, if the application is complete and has all the required information, the process takes an average of 120 working days.  The review schedule for Louisiana’s HPSAs can be viewed on the Health Professional Shortage Area page.

HPSA designations must be updated every three years.  The update procedure is exactly the same as the procedure for the original request.  At the time of the update review, changes in the type of HPSA may occur including a loss of HPSA designation due to the successful recruitment and retention efforts of the community.

No.  If an area is designated as a HPSA it does not mean it is a rural area.  There are several HPSAs in our state that are in metropolitan areas. 

HPSAs are defined service areas that demonstrate a critical shortage of primary care physicians, dentists, or mental health providers.  A HPSA can be a distinct geographic area such as a parish or grouping of census tracts, a specific population group within a defined geographic area (such as a population under 200% poverty), or a specific public or non-profit facility such a state hospital.  Maps of each of these types of HPSAs in Louisiana can be accessed on the Bureau of Primary Care and Rural Health’s website on the Data and Maps page.

This designation of Governor's Certified Shortage Area, authorized under the Rural Health Clinic legislation, is only used for eligibility for RHC certification.  It is not used like a Health Professional Shortage Area for National Health Service Corps placements or a Medically Underserved Area/Medically Underserved Population for 330 funding.

Under the provisions of Public law 99-280, enacted in 1986, a population group which does not meet the established criteria of an IMU less than 62.0 can nevertheless be considered for designation if "unusual local conditions which are a barrier to access to or the availability of personal health services" exist and are documented, and if such a designation is recommended by the chief executive officer and local officials of the State where the requested population resides. These areas are not eligible for RHC certification.

Requests for designation under these exceptional procedures should describe in detail the unusual local conditions/access barriers/availability indicators which led to the recommendation for exceptional designation and include any supporting data.

Such requests must also include a written recommendation for designation from the Governor or other chief executive officer of the State (or State-equivalent) and local health official.

All HPSA designation requests are evaluated and approved or disapproved by the federal Shortage Designation Branch (SDB) in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) based on the shortage/underserved criteria established by regulation.