PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Goldstein, Neal D.
AU  - Yerkes, Paul
TI  - Are Direct Primary Care Practices Located in Health Professional Shortage Areas?
AID  - 10.1370/afm.3168
DP  - 2024 Nov 01
TA  - The Annals of Family Medicine
PG  - 522--524
VI  - 22
IP  - 6
4099  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/22/6/522.short
4100  - http://www.annfammed.org/content/22/6/522.full
SO  - Ann Fam Med2024 Nov 01; 22
AB  - Direct primary care (DPC) is a model of health care delivery that relies on membership fees for service; however, it has been criticized as potentially worsening the shortage of primary care physicians. We sought to compare the distribution of DPC practices in the United States to that of non-DPC primary care and assess the overlap with Health Resources and Services Administration designated health professional shortage areas (HPSAs). We mined data from publicly available sources on DPC practices, HPSAs, and other primary care physicians. We stratified analyses by degree of rurality and HPSA priority need scores. We found that DPC practices were less likely to be in HPSAs overall and less likely to be in a high-priority–need HPSA but more likely to be in a rural or partially rural HPSA compared to primary care physicians. There is ample opportunity to grow DPC presence in many HPSAs that remain underserved, especially high-priority HPSAs in urban areas.