Are there location requirements for RHCs?
Yes. RHCs must be located in rural areas with current health care shortage designations. RHCs must be located in a rural area. Any area that is not in a U.S. Census-designated “urbanized area” is considered rural. You can use this U.S. Census Bureau reference map as a first step to see if your location qualifies. Scroll down below the U.S. map and enter the street address for your clinic’s location, then click on Go. A map will be generated for your area. To make the urbanized areas easier to see, you can go to the options menu in the blue bar and select boundaries. Uncheck all the options except for State and 2000 Urban Area, then click update. The map will refresh showing just the urbanized areas. The map will also show urban clusters, but you can ignore those. Just make sure that your location is not identified as an urbanized area (UA). The final determination of rural status is made by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (the state agency responsible for RHC certification) and t
