A geographic area, population group, or facility where residents have poor access to basic medical care because too few primary care physicians service the community can be designated a primary care HPSA (health professional shortage area) by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).  As of March 31, 2025, more than 77.2 million Americans lived in primary care shortfall areas as designated by the HRSA.  At that time, more than 7 million residents of the Mid-Eastern region of the U.S., which includes five states and the District of Columbia, were living in communities that were primary care shortfall areas. The HRSA estimates that to eliminate the region's primary care shortfall, Mid-Eastern region HPSAs would need more than 1,570 additional primary care physicians.  A closer examination of that 3/31/25 HRSA data reveals the following about the primary care shortfall in the Mid-Eastern U.S.:

The Primary Care Shortfall in the Mid-Eastern U.S.

State	(1) HPSAs	(2) Population	(3) Shortfall
DC	13	286,765	96
DE	10	231,014	71
MD	56	1,168,871	282
NJ	37	163,027	19
NY	191	4,810,016	1,033
PA	130	383,121	73
Region	437	7,042,814	1,574
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)