The population of an urban or rural area with a shortage of personal health services or another population group having a shortage of such services. A medically underserved population may not reside in a particular medically under served area, or be defined by its place of residence. Thus migrants, Native Americans or the inmates of a prison or mental hospital may constitute such a population. The term is defined and used several places in the PHS Act in order to give such populations priority for Federal assistance, e.g., in the HMO and XHSC programs.
A population group which does not have enough health care resources to meet its needs. The group may reside in a medically underserved area, or may be a population group with certain attributes; for example, migrant workers, Native Americans, or prison inmates may constitute a medically underserved population. The term is defined in the Public Health Service Act and used to determine which areas have priority for assistance.