These are common questions and answers related to the service area patient target.
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Overview
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How do you use the patient target?
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Patient targets are used to ensure continuity of primary health care services for health center patients within each service area. By publishing the patient target, we support fair competition and ensure that applicants are aware of the number of patients expected to be served in the service area. We monitor award recipients’ progress towards patient target achievement annually through the Budget Period Progress Report.
(Updated: July 2026)
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What is the difference between the patient target and my patient projection?
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When HRSA announces a Service Area Competition (SAC), it publishes a patient target in the SAC Service Area Announcement Table (SAAT). This is the number of patients HRSA expects a health center to serve in that service area.
When applying, applicants must estimate how many patients their organization expects to serve if awarded. This is the patient projection, which applicants enter on Form 1A.
The patient projection must be at least 75 percent of the patient target published in the Service Area Announcement Table. If the application is funded, the patient projection entered on Form 1A becomes the official patient target for the current period of performance.
(Updated: July 2026)
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How do you calculate the patient target?
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For the fiscal year (FY) 2027 SAC, the patient target is the total number of patients served by the currently funded health center for the service area, as reported in the 2025 Uniform Data System (UDS).
(Updated: July 2026)
Adjustments
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What if my patient projection is less than the patient target for my service area?
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You must propose to serve a minimum of 75 percent of the patient target to be eligible to apply for the service area. If your SAC application patient projection is lower than 95 percent of the patient target, you should reduce the federal request for funding according to the table below. If your application does not include the appropriate funding reduction, we will make it prior to your award.
A funding reduction based on your patient projection will be a permanent adjustment to the base funding for the service area.
Patient Projection Compared to Patient Target (%) Maximum Funding Request 95-100% of Patient Target No funding reduction 90-94.9% of Patient Target 1.2% funding reduction 85-89.9% of Patient Target 2.5% funding reduction 80-84.9% of Patient Target 3.7% funding reduction 75-79.9% of Patient Target 5% funding reduction Less than 75% of Patient Target Ineligible application (Updated: July 2026)
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Can I adjust my patient target during my Period of Performance?
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No. The patient projection that you include in your SAC application will be your patient target throughout your period of performance. Use your BPR narrative to discuss challenges in meeting your patient target. You will have the opportunity to adjust your patient target when your Period of Performance ends and you make a patient projection in your next SAC application.
(Updated: July 2026)
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I am an existing health center and have submitted a change in scope (CIS) request to add a new site. Will the new patient projections for this site be added to the patient target?
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No. If you apply to SAC during FY 2027, the patient target will only include the total number of unduplicated patients that were reported in the 2025 UDS data for the service area.
(Updated: July 2026)
Achievement
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What is the period for assessing patient target achievement?
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If you receive a four-year period of performance in FY27, your patient target achievement will be assessed in calendar year 2029.
(Updated: July 2026)
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How do you measure patient target achievement?
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We use the UDS report (unduplicated number of patients served) to measure progress and patient target achievement.
(Added: June 2024)
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What if my health center does not achieve the patient target by the required date?
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We monitor progress towards patient targets each year when UDS data is submitted.
(Updated: July 2026)