UNIVERSAL SERVICE FUND – RURAL HEALTH CARE

The Rural Health Care Program, one of the FCC’s Universal Service Fund programs, provides funding to eligible health care providers for telecommunications and broadband services necessary for the provision of health care. The goal of the program is to improve the quality of health care available to patients in rural communities by ensuring that eligible health care providers have access to telecommunications and broadband services. The Rural Health Care Program is currently made up of two programs: the Telecommunications Program and the Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Program. The Telecommunications Program, established in 1997, subsidizes the difference between urban and rural rates for telecommunications services. Under the Telecommunications Program, eligible rural health care providers can obtain rates on telecommunications services in rural areas that are reasonably comparable to rates charged for similar services in corresponding urban areas. The HCF Program, established in 2012, promotes the use of broadband services and facilitates the formation of health care provider consortia that include both rural and urban health care providers by providing a flat 65% discount on an array of advanced telecommunications and information services. These services include internet access, dark fiber, business data, traditional digital service line (DSL), and private carriage services. Universal service has been defined by Congress as “an evolving level of telecommunications services . . . taking into account advances in telecommunications and information technologies and services.”

Eligible health care providers include: (1) post-secondary educational institutions offering health care instruction, including teaching hospitals and medical schools; (2) community health centers or health centers providing health care to migrants; (3) local health departments or agencies; (4) community mental health centers; (5) not-for-profit hospitals; (6) rural health clinics; (7) skilled nursing facilities (as defined in 42 USC § 1395i-3(a)) and (8) consortium of health care providers consisting of one or more entities falling into the first seven categories. In addition, eligible health care providers must be non-profit or public.

2 CFR 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards applies to this program.

Health care providers must: (1) submit information to the program administrator to establish their eligibility to participate in the Rural Health Care Program; (2) initiate and complete an FCC-compliant competitive bidding process and select the most cost-effective service offering; and (3) submit a funding request application to the program administrator with all required supporting documentation. The program administrator will issue a letter containing a decision on the funding request. If the funding request is approved and after the approved services have been provided to the health care provider, invoices may be submitted to the program administrator for disbursements to the health care provider’s service provider.

USAC reviews each funding application to ensure compliance with program rules and procedures. The competitive bidding, program application and other required program processes described herein are governed by the FCC’s rules at 47 CFR § 54.600 et. seq. and associated FCC Orders for the Rural Health Care Program. After a submitted application undergoes a program review, the applicant will receive a Funding Commitment Letter providing the total amount of approved support for each funding request or indicating that its funding request has been denied.

The FCC has not set a specific date range for funding decisions but has a program target to encourage efficient processing of program applications. Approval/denial notifications are sent on a rolling basis. Due to the unique nature of each application and review, there is not a standard date range for when decisions are issued.