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[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 66 (Wednesday, April 8, 2009)]
[Notices]
[Page 15995]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-8013]

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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Health Resources and Services Administration

Office of Rural Health Policy; Notice of Meetings

    Name: Office of Rural Health Policy, Health Resources and 
Services Administration (HRSA), HHS.
    Dates and Times: April 24, 2009, 8 a.m.--3 p.m. in Albuquerque, 
NM. May 18, 2009, 8 a.m.--3 p.m. in Seattle, WA. June 26, 2009, 8 
a.m.--3 p.m. in Omaha, NE.
    Place: The Albuquerque Marriott, 2101 Louisiana Boulevard, NE., 
Albuquerque, NM 87110, Phone: 505-881-6800.
    The Seattle Airport Marriott, 3201 South 176th Street, Seattle, 
WA 98188, Phone: 206-241-2000.
    The Omaha Marriott, 10220 Regency Circle, Omaha, NE 68114, 
Phone: 402-399-9000.
    Status: The meetings will be open to the public.
    Purpose: The Office of Rural Health Policy (ORHP) will hold a 
series of meetings to gather information on potential definitions of 
the terms Frontier or Remote Areas.
    Currently the most widely used definition within the Department 
of Health and Human Services (DHHS) requires that the population 
density of a county consist of six or fewer persons per square mile. 
The use of whole counties as the unit of measurement can lead to 
inclusion of large population centers in large area counties that 
still have a low overall population density.
    Use of population density alone as a measure of remoteness is 
also inappropriate for islands as the population density can far 
exceed 6 persons per square mile even though the island is isolated 
and lacks access to services and resources.
    ORHP has used the Rural-Urban commuting area (RUCA) codes to 
identify rural areas located in Metropolitan counties. Metropolitan 
counties are defined by the Office of Management and Budget of the 
White House but can contain substantial rural areas due to 
geographic barriers, distance or other factors. RUCAs are based on a 
sub-county unit, the Census Tract, and take into account population 
density, urbanization, and daily commuting patterns. Every Census 
tract is assigned a code based on these factors. While ORHP has 
chosen to define Metropolitan tracts with RUCA codes from 4 through 
10 as ``rural'' for purposes of grant eligibility, the codes have 
not been used to identify ``Frontier'' or remote areas.
    In order to pursue a more accurate definition of Frontier/Remote 
areas, ORHP has entered into agreements with L. Gary Hart and the 
Economic Research Service (ERS) of the US Department of Agriculture 
(USDA). Dr. Hart and ERS also developed the RUCAs with support from 
ORHP. As work on this definition proceeds ORHP will hold a series of 
meetings to gather information from interested parties and the 
public.
    While a robust, quantitative definition of Frontier/Remote areas 
may have future programmatic uses, the immediate goal of ORHP and 
ERS is to make this work available for research purposes.
    For Further Information Contact: Direct requests for additional 
information to Mr. Steven Hirsch, Health Resources and Services 
Administration, Office of Rural Health Policy, Room 9A-55, 5600 
Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857, (301) 443-7322. E-mail: 
[email protected].

    Dated: April 3, 2009.
Alexandra Huttinger,
Director, Division of Policy Review and Coordination.
[FR Doc. E9-8013 Filed 4-7-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4165-15-P
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