Criteria for Determining Maternity Care Health Professional Target Areas

Section 332 of the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), to identify Maternity Care Target Areas (MCTA), or geographic areas within health professional shortage areas that have a shortage of maternity care health professionals, for the purpose of providing maternity health care assistance to such health professional shortage areas. On September 21, 2021, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) published a Federal Register notice soliciting feedback on proposed criteria to be used to identify Maternity Care Target Areas (MCTAs). HRSA requested feedback on six proposed criteria for inclusion in a composite scale to identify MCTAs with the greatest shortage of maternity care health professionals: (1) Ratio of females ages 15-44 - to-full time equivalent maternity care health professional ratio; (2) percentage of females 15-44 with income at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL); (3) travel time and distance to the nearest provider location with access to comprehensive maternity care services; (4) fertility rate; (5) the Social Vulnerability Index; and (6) four Maternal Health Indicators (pre-pregnancy obesity, pre- pregnancy diabetes, pre-pregnancy hypertension, and prenatal care initiation in the first trimester). This notice summarizes and responds to the comments received during the 60-day comment period and presents the final criteria which will be used to identify and score MCTAs.