Reminder: Today is the last day to submit an FCC Form 466 or 466A to receive support for Funding Year 2008

Forms submitted online or postmarked prior to midnight tonight (EDT) will be accepted.  If you have any questions, call 800.229.5476.

Have you received your discount for FY2005, 2006 and 2007?

A number of Health Care Provider (HCP) who requested funding for FY2005, 2006 and 2007 have not yet received their discount. In most cases this is because the Health Care Provider has not completed the application process. Prior to receiving support from the universal service support mechanism, you must complete the FCC Form 467 and return it to the Rural Health Care (RHC) Division. The FCC Form 467 confirms to RHC that the HCP did receive the requested telecommunications or internet service from their service provider. It is only upon receiving a completed FCC Form 467 from you that RHC can finalize approval of the requested discount and inform your service provider to issue you the discount.

You can complete the form online at USAC's Online Forms Page by signing into your account. Select the applicable funding year (2005, 2006 or 2007) and check to see if you have any 467 forms in draft status. If the form is in draft status it means that RHC has not received a completed form and you have not received your discount for the service. If you have any questions regarding how to complete this form, please contact USAC at 1-800-229-5476.

USAC Website Scheduled Outage - Saturday, June 13 from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.

USAC's website [ www.usac.org | www.universalservice.org | www.lifelinesupport.org ] will be unavailable Saturday, June 13th from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. due to scheduled maintenance.

Rural Health Care System Maintenance on Friday, June 19, 2009, 9pm to 10 pm EST

Please note due to a rolling system maintenance being performed on our web servers on Friday, June 19, 2009 between 9:00p.m. and 10:00 pm, there is a possibility of intermittent outages, and applicants may temporarily lose connection to the RHC site.  We recommend that applicants refrain from working on any Forms during this time.   We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Rural Health Care Customer Support Center will be Closed on May 25, 2009 in Observance of Memorial Day.

The Rural Health Care Customer Support Center will be closed on Monday, May 25, 2009 in observance of Memorial Day. The Customer Support Center will resume normal operations on Tuesday, May 26, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. EDT.

Where is Rural Health Care?

USAC's Rural Health Care Division will be attending a number of conferences, meetings, and trainings over the next two months. Check out the Rural Health Care Division's Calendar for dates, locations, and more information.

Window Opening for Funding Year 2009

We are pleased to announce that the application window for Funding Year 2009 will open on Thursday, April 9, 2009.  Applicants will be able to post their Form 465 for Funding Year 2009 (July 1, 2009 – June 30, 2010).  Below are some tips and links to our website to help you with this process.

• To be eligible for a full year's support, an applicant must post Form 465 by June 2, 2009, unless you have an Evergreen Contract (see below). Remember you must wait 28-days for bids before entering into a service agreement.
• If you have an "Evergreen Contract " but might change your service or renew your contract during Fund Year 2009, you should post a Form 465. (Evergreen Contracts must have been verified by RHCD in a prior Fund Year.)
• If you have enabled E-Cert, go to Applicant Login to submit and post a Form 465. If you have not enabled E-Cert, but are eligible for E-Cert as a prior applicant, login and enable E-Cert before completing Form 465.

For other tips and best practices please follow this link to our website. If you have any questions please call our customer service center at (800) 229-5476.