Monroe, Drew, and Phillips Counties have been added as Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSA) for primary care by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
HPSAs are areas with a shortage of primary health care professionals and facilities. This designation can be based on several criteria, including geography, facilities, population, and medically underserved areas or populations.
This new designation allows qualifying health care organizations to use federal funding to recruit medical professionals, such as doctors, nurses, dentists, and behavioral health care professionals, to rural areas in need by offering student loan repayment. The counties’ HPSA designations provide an opportunity to increase recruitment and retention of health care providers and ultimately increase access to medical care. The applications for this designation were submitted November 2022.
You can find more information about HPSA designations at https://bhw.hrsa.gov/shortage-designation or contact ADH’s Office of Rural Health and Primary Care at orhpc@arkansas.gov.
