Whenever residents of geographic areas, facilities, or population groups have subpar access to basic medical care because too few primary care physicians serve the area relative to its population, the setting can be designated a primary care HPSA (health professional shortage area) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  As of March 31, 2025, the HRSA reported that more than 77.2 million Americans lived in primary care HPSAs.  That included just over 5.4 million residents of the seven-state Great Plains region.  This number represented almost 7% of the U.S. population that was living in a primary care shortfall area at that time.  The HRSA estimates that to eliminate the shortfall Great Plains region HPSAs would need 1,080 additional primary care physicians.  An examination of HRSA data details the following about the primary care shortfall in the Great Plains region:

The Primary Care Shortfall in the Great Plains Region

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
IA	161	745,778	162
KS	160	676,611	113
MN	212	1,415,841	201
MO	336	1,878,341	476
NE	131	235,596	33
ND	87	182,247	39
SD	99	267,936	56
Region	1,186	5,402,350	1,080
U.S.	7,749	77,253,848	13,364

(1) HRSA-designated Geographic Units, Population Groups, and Facilities with a primary care shortfall

(2) Population of designated HPSAs

(3) Primary Care practitioners needed to remove the HPSA Designation

Source:  Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, 3/31/25 (HRSA)