Second HRSA Negotiated Rulemaking Committee

Meeting to consider redefining the manner in which the federal government identifies medically underserved areas (MUA) and health professional shortage areas (HPSA) is kicking off today in Rockville, MD. We are going to begin getting into the nitty gritty of considering new designation approaches.

Some key issues/questions we will begin considering over the next two days:

• Discussion of the distinction/overlap between the current HPSA and MUA designation methods, including looking at the various programs that use these designation approaches to allocate resources;
• Begin discussion designed to lead to a consensus (eventually) of what the committee means by 'underservice.'
• Discuss the difference between need and demand for health care services
• Develop a list of the variables/measures of underservice and the databases containing same that would be a part of any future designation measure(s).

Past stuff on the negotiated rulemaking committee here, here, and here.

Update: 2:45pm. We have heard presentations about data sources and about the use of the current designations by existing programs. After lunch we have been working on an exhaustive list of "Barriers to Primary Care that lead to underservice" has roughly identified just about all the problems with access to the health care system. There is also some discussion that we move to pivot from very expansive and exhaustive list of all the problems with access/underservice and begin to focus our efforts in line with the more narrow charge to the group of PPACA as laid out in the Federal Register.