The Rocky Mountain Region's Primary Care Shortage

A geographic area, population group, or facility that has poor access to basic medical care because it lacks a sufficient number of primary care physicians can be designated a primary care health professional shortage area (HPSA) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  As of December 31, 2021, more than 86.4 million Americans lived in primary care HPSAs as designated by the HRSA.  The five-state Rocky Mountain region accounted for just over 3.6% of the U.S. population who lived in primary care shortage areas, and about 3.7% of the overall national shortage of primary care providers.  The HRSA estimates that to eliminate the shortage Rocky Mountain region HPSAs would need 562 additional primary care physicians.  A closer examination of 12/31/21 HRSA data reveals the following about the Rocky Mountain region's primary care shortage:

The Rocky Mountain Region's Primary Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
CO	123	1,161,323	259
ID	101	571,646	98
MT	143	422,601	78
UT	66	783,207	103
WY	46	185,652	24
Region	479	3,124,429	562
U.S.	7,613	86,473,101	15,184

(1) Designated Geographic, Population Group and Facility HPSAs with a primary care shortage

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Primary Care practitioners needed to remove HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 12/31/21 (HRSA)