For the Rural Targeted Distribution, HHS used the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy’s definition of rural, which includes:
1. All non-Metro counties.
2. All Census Tracts within a Metropolitan county that have a Rural-Urban Commuting Area (RUCA) code of 4-10. The RUCA codes allow the identification of rural Census Tracts in Metropolitan counties.
3. 132 large area census tracts with RUCA codes 2 or 3. These tracts are at least 400 square miles in area with a population density of no more than 35 people per square mile.