Health Service Areas (HSAs) were originally defined by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to be a single county or cluster of contiguous counties which are relatively self-contained with respect to hospital care. For further information about their initial use, please visit the Atlas of United State Mortality (PDF).

Using Health Service Areas with SEER*Stat

The following variables are available in SEER*Stat for use with Health Service Areas.

Health Service Area (NCI Modified)

This variable was derived from the original Health Service Area definitions. It was modified so that any HSAs that crossed state or SEER Registry boundaries were split so that all counties from one HSA were in one state and/or SEER Registry.

Health Service Area

This variable was derived from the original Health Service Area definitions.

Names of Health Service Areas

The names of the Health Service Areas are derived from the names of the 2 counties with the highest populations in 2000 within the HSA. Additionally, if there is a major city in one of the counties that name will be added in parenthesis.

For example, the Health Service Area around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is named: "Alleghany (Pittsburgh), PA - Westmoreland, PA". Alleghany and Westmoreland counties have the highest population in this HSA and Pittsburgh is in Alleghany County.

Download HSA Spreadsheet

The following spreadsheet has the Health Service Area variables and the counties that comprise them:
[Excel (XLS, 677 KB)] [PDF (PDF, 9.8 MB)] - updated April 19, 2023