Rural Health Care Outreach Conference Call Minutes
Thursday, March 14, 2002

Year 5 Posting
RHCD reported that 380 Year 5 Form 465s have been posted, with about 90 e-certified (electronically signed and submitted). It was noted that with 1,726 Form 465s posted for Year 4, over 1,200 Form 465s are yet to be received. HCPs were reminded to submit 465s immediately, and that they could e-cert Form 465 if they have received a funding commitment in either Year 3 or Year 4. HCPs were encouraged to e-cert if possible, as it eliminates handling delays.

E-Cert Form 467
RHCD is about to begin testing an e-cert version of Form 467. HCPs e-certified for Form 465 will be able to use the e-cert version of Form 467. When it is ready, the e-cert 467 will be available for Year 4 or Year 5 applicants.

Year 3 Closeout
All Year 3 funding commitments have been issued, for $10.7 million. $8.9 million has been invoiced and paid and about $400k will not be invoiced (service not turned on etc.) RHCD has $700k in pending invoices, leaving $700k to be submitted. RHCD has been attempting to contact those telcos, to avoid having to deny untimely invoices. A carrier asked if March 31^st was the deadline to submit invoices. RHCD replied that invoices must be submitted before that, so RHCD can get them into the last regular payment run on Friday March 29^th.

Year 4 Status
810 packets have been received and 325 have been processed for $4 million in funding commitments. RHCD said that at current processing rates, the queue may be worked through in a few months, and it is essential to get more packets in to keep Customer Service working at full capacity and avoid a year-end rush. Large groups and consortia were especially encouraged to get packets in early. In response to an HCP question, RHCD urged large groups to submit all packets together, or else to include a cover letter noting which packets were yet to be submitted, so RHCD can have the same customer service rep work on all packets. RHCD reminded HCPs that they must submit urban rate documentation, but that they could seek help from RHCD if their telco did not serve and could not provide rates for the nearest urban area.

Year 5 Status
RHCD noted that 465s should be submitted immediately to insure completion of the 28 day posting before the funding year starts July 1, 2002.

Year 6 Planning
RHCD will have an (internal) planning conference for Year 6 next week. Suggestions for administrative (but not policy) changes may be submitted to the customer service desk. A telco suggested combining Forms 466/468, to reduce the amount of paper involved in an application. RHCD said that was on the agenda, as well as consideration of posting urban rates (as in Years 1 and 2) on the RHCD website.

Questions
An HCP asked if it were still possible to apply for Year 4. RHCD said yes, but retroactive support was not available.

An HCP asked if paper forms must be submitted each year. RHCD replied that paper forms must be submitted for each year, except Form 465 (and soon Form 467) may be signed and submitted electronically for e-certified applicants. Although some applicants with RHCD certified multi-year contracts might be exempt from posting Form 465, RHCD cautioned against not posting, since a mistake in relying on the exception could cause support to be denied.

Questions were asked concerning posted urban rates in Alaska. Because the situation was unique to Alaska, RHCD agreed to follow-up with the affected telcos.

The next call will be Thursday, April 11, 2002.

Approximately 10 health care providers and 14 telecommunications carriers (some with multiple representatives) participated in the call.

Questions?
Call our toll free number 1-800-229-5476 8am-8pm (EST) Monday-Friday.