When residents of a geographic area, facility, or population group have poor access to basic medical care because too few primary care physicians are serving the area relative to its population size, the setting can be designated a primary care HPSA (health professional shortage area) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  As of December 31, 2022, the HRSA reported that more than 98.5 million Americans lived in designated primary care HPSAs.  The seven-state Great Plains region had 6.1 million residents who lived in a primary care shortage area as of 12/31/22.  This number represented about 6.2% of the U.S. population that was living in primary care shortage areas at that time.  The HRSA estimates that to eliminate the shortage Great Plains region HPSAs would need 1,221 additional primary care physicians.  As such, the region accounted for about 7.2% of the national deficit of primary care physicians.  A closer review of 12/31/22 HRSA data reveals the following state-level details about the Great Plains' primary care shortage:

The Great Plains' Primary Care Shortage

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortage
IA	175	850,095	156
KS	190	823,846	133
MN	219	1,524,235	212
MO	363	2,294,436	600
NE	93	75,705	15
ND	93	229,048	49
SD	104	309,479	56
Region	1,237	6,106,844	1,221
U.S.	8,294	98,537,257	17,065
% of U.S.	14.9%	6.2%	7.2%

(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, 12/31/22 (HRSA)