The Primary Care Office assists communities that are interested in assessing whether they meet federal criteria for designation as a Medically Underserved Area (MUA) or Medically Underserved Population (MUP). These designations are required to pursue federal funding for a Federally Qualified Health Center. 

Analysis for MUA/P designation includes computation of the Index of Medical Underservice for an area or population group. The index consists of four components:

• Percentage of the population below poverty level; 
• Percentage of the population age 65 and over; 
• Infant mortality rate; and 
• Availability of primary care physicians.

To see a list of currently designated MUA/Ps, visit http://muafind.hrsa.gov/