REPORT: Rural counties across New York face shortage of health professionals, including Herkimer and Lewis

ALBANY, NY- One of the latest reports from the New York Comptroller’s Office highlights a healthcare professional shortage in 16 rural counties statewide, including Herkimer and Lewis.

“Addressing gaps in the rural healthcare workforce to alleviate current shortages and plan for future demand will not only positively impact the health of people living in less populated areas of New York, but could also create new jobs and bolster our rural economies,” said State Comptroller, Thomas P. DiNapoli.

***See the full report here.

Key Findings:

• Ten of the sixteen rural counties covered in this report are federally designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas for primary care, dental and mental health; all 16 counties examined have shortage designations for at least two of these fields of medicine.
• On average, the 16 rural counties have four primary care physicians per 10,000 people – a ratio that is less than half that of the state (8.1) and the U.S. (8.4) and falls below the Graduate Medical Education National Advisory Committee (GMENAC) guideline (6.9). For the nearly 173,000 people within designated Primary
• Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (HP Shortage Area) who are underserved (23% of the rural counties’ population), these shortages are far more acute – as low as 0.12 physicians per 10,000 people.
• The 16 rural counties have 0.5 pediatricians for every 10,000 people – less than one-fifth of the state ratio (2.8), one-third of the U.S. (1.8), and less than half the GMENAC guideline (1.2). There are no pediatric physicians in three of the 16 counties.
• The OBGYN physician to 10,000 population ratio of the 16 rural counties is 0.4 – meaning there is roughly one OBGYN physician for every 23,000 people. This is less than half the GMENAC guideline (1). Four counties – Hamilton, Herkimer, Schuyler and Yates – have no OBGYN physicians at all.
• The 16 rural counties’ dentist to 10,000 population ratio (3.6) is less than half of the state ratio (8.3). There are no dentists in Hamilton County. Ten of the sixteen rural counties have dental HP Shortage Areas for the Medicaid eligible population with a combined underserved population of 134,248 people, or nearly 18% of the population.
• The rural counties’ mental health practitioner to 10,000 population ratio (6.9) is less than half that of the state (16.1). All of the rural counties are designated as mental health HP Shortage Areas either for the entire population, or for portions of the population like the low income or Medicaid eligible portions of the population. In the rural counties, there are 305,265 people within mental health HP Shortage Areas who are designated as underserved by the Health Resources Services Administration, or nearly 41% of the population.

The report brings to light what officials refer to as “alarming shortfalls” in primary care, pediatric, and obstetrician and gynecologist (OBGYN) doctors, dentists and mental health practitioners, with several rural counties having no pediatricians or OBGYN doctors at all.

To help ease the shortage, the Comptroller’s office suggests policies to help bolster the rural healthcare workforce, such as incentivizing the training of new healthcare professionals to serve in rural New York through loan forgiveness programs and rural stipends or subsidies, and attracting existing professionals to rural areas through similar programs or implement reciprocity programs for out-of-state professionals to serve in rural areas.

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