USACRural Health CareConnected Care Pilot ProgramStep 1: Develop Bid Evaluation Criteria & Select Services
CCPP Competitive Bidding Exemptions

CCPP Competitive Bidding Exemptions

If your site is requesting eligible services or network equipment that meets one of the competitive bidding exemptions below, you are not required to submit the FCC Form 461 and go through the competitive bidding process for those services or network equipment. You must indicate your intent to use a competitive bidding exemption when you file your funding request form (FCC Form 462).

You are exempt from competitive bidding if any of the following apply:

  1. Government Master Service Agreement (MSA): You are seeking support for services and equipment purchased from master service agreements (MSAs) negotiated by a federal, state, Tribal, or local governmental entity on the applicant’s behalf, and awarded pursuant to applicable federal, state, Tribal, or local competitive bidding requirements.
  2. Master Service Agreements approved under the Rural Health Care Pilot Program or HCF Program: You are opting into an existing MSA approved under the Healthcare Connect Fund Program and seeking support for services and equipment purchased from the MSA, as long as the MSA was developed and negotiated in response to an RFP or request for services that specifically solicited proposals that included a mechanism for adding additional sites to the MSA.
  3. Evergreen Contract: You have an existing contract already endorsed by USAC as evergreen.
  4. Schools and Libraries Program Master Contracts: You are an eligible HCP in a consortium with participants in the Schools and Libraries (E-Rate) program and are purchasing services and/or network equipment under a contract approved under the E-Rate program as a master contract.
  5. If you are seeking support for $10,000 or less of total undiscounted eligible expenses for a single year you may bypass the competitive bidding process.
    1. For consortia applicants, this exemption is $10,000 for all funding requests submitted for the consortium.
    2. Note: If you select this option on your FCC Form 462, you will not be able to request a multi-year funding commitment.
  6. The eligible health care provider already has entered into a legally binding agreement with a service provider for services or equipment eligible for support in the Connected Care Pilot Program and that legally binding agreement itself was the product of competitive bidding.
    1. Many Pilot Program applicants may already have established competitively bid contracts with service providers for broadband Internet access, other information services, or network equipment for the provision of connected care services.
    2. This exemption only applies to the Pilot Program.

For services and network equipment that do not meet any of the exemptions above you must submit an FCC Form 461 to USAC and competitively bid the requested services or network equipment.