12 Va. Admin. Code § 5-540-40
A. Determining medically underserved cities and counties. The criteria enumerated in 12VAC5-540-30 shall be used to construct a numerical index by which the relative degree of medical underservice shall be calculated for each city and county within the Commonwealth. Observations for each of the criteria will be listed for each Virginia city and county. An interval scale will be used to assign a particular value to each observation. This will be done for each of the criteria. Each interval scale will consist of four ranges or outcomes of observations. The ranges will be numerically equal. The four ranges will be labeled as Level 1, Level 2, Level 3, and Level 4. The numerical difference between the ranges will be established beginning with the Level 2 range.
The Level 2 range shall have the statewide average for each respective criterion, except the population to primary care physician ratio, as its upper limit. The Level 2 upper limit for the primary care physician to population ratio is established by dividing the difference between the Level 4 upper limit for this criterion and the Level 1 upper limit by two. Each observation which is equal to or less than the Level 2 upper limit, but greater than the Level 1 upper limit, will be assigned a numerical value of two.
The Level 1 range shall have an upper limit which is the quotient of the statewide average divided by two. For the ratio of population to primary care physician criterion, the upper limit of Level 1 shall be the ratio 2500:1 as recommended by the American Academy of Family Physicians. Each observation that is equal to or less than the Level 1 upper limit will be assigned a numerical value of one.
The Level 3 range shall have an upper limit that is equal to the sum of the upper limit of the Level 1 range and the upper limit of the Level 2 range. For the ratio of population to primary care physician criterion, the upper limit of level 3 shall be established at 3500:1, the federal standard for designating health manpower shortage areas. Each observation that is equal to or less than the Level 3 upper limit will be assigned a numerical value of three.
The Level 4 range will include any observation greater than the upper limit of Level 3 range. Each observation in the Level 4 range will be assigned a numerical value of four.
The values for each of the ranges of the criteria will be summed for each Virginia city and county. Each Virginia city and county will have an assigned value of five or greater, to a maximum of 20. A statewide average value will be determined by summing the total city and county values and dividing by the number of cities and counties. Any city or county assigned a value that is greater than the statewide average value shall be considered medically underserved.
§§ 32.1-12 and 32.1-122.5 of the Code of Virginia.
Derived from VR355-40-500 § 2.2, eff. July 3, 1991; amended, Virginia Register Volume 32, Issue 7, eff. December 30, 2015.