Announcements
June 17, 2024
FCC Announces Availability of Unused Funds to Fully Fund Rural Health Care Program Demand for FY2024
On June 14, 2024, the FCC Wireline Competition Bureau directed USAC to carry forward up to $161.57 million in unused funds from prior funding years to satisfy funding year (FY) 2024 demand for the Rural Health Care program. Because of this, all eligible RHC Program funding requests filed during the funding year 2024 application filing window can now be fully funded without prioritization. Please read the Public Notice for more information.
June 14, 2024
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Upgrade: June 16, 2024
RHC Connect will be unavailable on Sunday, June 16 from 7:00 p.m.-midnight ET due to a scheduled system upgrade. During this time, users will be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
June 6, 2024
RHC Program News
June 3, 2024
Submit Your Telecommunications Program Invoice by July 1, 2024!
Per FCC Order 23-110, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established a deadline of July 1, 2024 for Telecom Program participants to submit invoices for funding years 2019 and earlier, the period during which there was no invoice filing deadline in the Telecom Program.
If you are planning to submit a disbursement request (invoice) for the remaining commitment balance(s), please submit the request(s) in My Portal by July 1, 2024. After that date, the outstanding commitment balance will no longer be available. Unused balances for Telecom funding commitments will be de-obligated and returned to the Universal Service Fund for use in the RHC Program in accordance with the public interest.
For more information about submitting Telecom invoices, please visit the Invoice USAC webpage on the USAC website or contact the RHC Invoicing team at RHC-invoicing@usac.org.
May 17, 2024
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Upgrade: May 19, 2024
RHC Connect will be unavailable from Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 7:00 p.m. – Monday, May 20, 2024 at 1:00 a.m. ET due to a scheduled system upgrade. During this time, users will be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
May 2, 2024
RHC Program News
View the May Newsletter
May 1, 2024
FCC Released Order DA 24-366 Directing USAC to Accept Late-Filed Funding Requests
On April 18, 2024, the FCC released Order DA 24-366 waiving the application filing deadline and directing USAC to allow health care providers to submit funding requests for the RHC program for 30 days after the close of each application filing window. If the FCC grants a waiver of the application for the late-filed funding request, USAC will then process the funding request as if it had been filed prior to the end of the filing window. If the health care provider does not request a waiver for a late-filed funding request or if the FCC denies the waiver, USAC will dismiss the funding request.
April 4, 2024
RHC Program News
View the April Newsletter
March 29, 2024
RESOLVED: USAC Systems Experiencing Intermittent Connectivity Issues
Several USAC systems are experiencing intermittent connectivity issues. Our team is working to resolve the issues. We apologize for the inconvenience.
March 8, 2024
RHC Program Inflation-Based Cap Announced for FY2024
The Rural Health Care (RHC) program funding cap for funding year (FY) 2024 is $706,926,603. The internal cap for upfront payments and multi-year commitments under the Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Program is $178,496,951. The internal cap for upfront payments and multi-year commitments will apply only if RHC program demand exceeds available funding. These new caps represent a 3.6 percent inflation-adjusted increase to the $682,361,586 RHC program funding cap and the $172,294,354 internal cap on multi-year commitments and upfront payments from FY2023. Read the announcement.
March 7, 2024
RHC Program News
View the March Newsletter
March 7, 2024
FCC Releases Order DA 24-214 Extending the Deadline for Funding Year (FY) 2024 Filing Window to May 1, 2024.
On March 7, 2024, the FCC released Order DA 24-214 extending the deadline for the FY2024 application filing window to May 1, 2024. This means all funding requests (FCC Forms 462 or 466) must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. ET on May 1, 2024. We highly encourage you to submit your funding requests as early as possible in the filing window.
Visit USAC’s website for more information about filing windows.
February 5, 2024
USAC One Portal Maintenance – February 9
USAC will perform system updates on One Portal on Friday, February 9 from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
During this time all applications within One Portal will be inaccessible, including E-File, the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC), the National Lifeline Accountability Database (NLAD), Rural Health Care’s My Portal and RHC Connect, the High Cost Universal Broadband (HUBB) portal, and several additional smaller-usage applications. The National Verifier WILL NOT be affected during this system update.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
February 1, 2024
RHC Program News
View the February Newsletter
January 11, 2024
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Upgrade: January 14, 2024
RHC Connect will be unavailable on Sunday, January 14 from 8:00 -10:00 p.m. due to a scheduled system upgrade. During this time, users will be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
January 4, 2024
RHC Program News
View the January Newsletter