Other Primary Care Providers*
About
Ratio of population to primary care providers other than physicians. The 2025 Annual Data Release used data from 2024 for this measure.
For most states and counties, updated data were released on using data from 2025.
Physicians are not the only providers of primary health care. Other professionals can serve as sources of routine, preventive care, including nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). In future years, physician shortages in the U.S. are predicted to persist. The supply adequacy of physicians in 2027 (a shortage of 124,180 physicians or 12%) is projected to continue to decline in 2037 (a shortage of 187,130 physicians or 16%). Certain health care services provided by NPs and PAs can help alleviate shortages as demand increases.1
Data and methods
Data Source
CMS, National Provider Identifier Downloadable File
The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) downloadable file contains all active and inactive National Provider Identifier (NPI) records. The file is also known as the NPI Downloadable File and/or the full replacement Monthly NPI File and is updated monthly. For active NPIs, data such as the provider's name, specialty and practice address are published in the downloadable file. Data in the file is reported to NPPES by providers when applying for an NPI or updating information associated with their NPI.
Website to download data
For more detailed methodological information
Key Measure Methods
Other Primary Care Providers is a ratio
Other Primary Care Providers is the ratio of the county population to the number of primary care providers other than physicians. The ratio can be interpreted as the number of individuals served by an alternative provider in a county, if the population were equally distributed across providers. For example, if a county has a population of 50,000 and has 20 other primary care providers, the county ratio would be: 2,500:1.
The method for calculating Other Primary Care Providers has changed
With our most recent update (09/24/2025), we applied geospatial tools to address data errors in the CMS National Provider Identifier File, which impacts the matching of providers to counties. This new approach prevents data loss and inaccuracies that previously occurred when matching solely by ZIP code. Key improvements include exclusion of providers serving on overseas military bases, correction of county assignment for providers with incomplete or incorrect ZIP codes, and retention of providers through corrected ZIP codes.
Other Primary Care Providers has been corrected
We discovered an error in our method for identifying other primary care providers impacting the 2014-2016 Annual Data Releases: we were including organizations as well as individual providers in each county. The correct estimates of the ratios for Other Primary Care Providers are now available on the 2015 and 2016 Health Snapshots and in the downloadable data files. Unfortunately, the raw data file used to calculate Other Primary Care Providers for the 2014 Annual Data Release is not available, so corrections cannot be provided.
Some data are suppressed
A missing value is reported for counties with population greater than 4,000 and 0 other primary care providers.
Caution should be used when comparing these estimates across years
The introduction of geospatial tools into the data cleaning process described above may lead to notable shifts in provider-to-population ratios when compared to prior years. These effects are likely to be most evident in counties with fewer providers or smaller populations, where the refined matching process produces larger proportional changes.
Measure limitations
Primary care providers are classified by county, but physicians living on the edge of counties or who practice in multiple locations may see patient populations that reside in surrounding counties. Providers are matched to counties by the state and ZIP code recorded in the provider address; ZIP codes can and do change and may not map neatly to a single county.
Providers who transmit electronic health records are required to obtain an identification number, but some providers may not obtain a number. Some primary care providers included in this list may no longer be practicing or accepting new patients, which may result in an overestimate of providers in some communities.
Left side of ratio
The left side of the ratio is the total county population.
Right side of ratio
The right side of the ratio is the number of other primary care providers in a county. Other primary care providers include NPs and PAs.
Can This Measure Be Used to Track Progress
Please note method changes and measure limitations when using these data to evaluate progress. It is valuable to contextualize this measure with local data sources where available.
Finding More Data
Disaggregation means breaking data down into smaller, meaningful subgroups. Disaggregated data are often broken down by characteristics of people or where they live. Disaggregated data can reveal inequalities that are otherwise hidden. These data can be disaggregated by:
- Gender
- Subcounty Area
It is difficult to stratify this measure by population demographics. The NPPES NPI Registry website can be used to look up NPI records for specific providers or organizations, or to look for NPI records in a specific location, but the number of results returned for each search is limited.
References
- National Center for Health Workforce Analysis. Physician Workforce: Projections, 2022-2037. Rockville: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). 2024. https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/physicians-projections-factsheet.pdf