Rural Health Care Outreach Conference Call Minutes
Thursday, April 12, 2001

Year Two (7/1/99-6/30/00) closeout

Over $7.1M has been committed to 632 rural Health Care Providers which is double the amount committed in year one. Essentially all of the financial transactions have been completed and RHCD thanked the applicants and the telephone companies for their work to close the year out and for their assistance throughout the funding year.

Year Three (7/1/00-6/30/01) status

A reminder to use year THREE FORMS as the forms have changed from year two. Use of year two forms will delay applicant funding. Helpful tips on completing FCC Forms 466 and 468 applications mentioned were: (1) be sure to include urban rate documentation (letter from a telco verifying a rate, tariff page, web site page, copy of telephone bill etc); (2) if there is a link extension associated with the service, be sure to note that fact on the application or on a separate document; (3) list mileage charges only once on Form 466 (e.g. do not put mileage charges in Block 5 and again as a "rate comparison" in Block 6); and (4) be sure to fully read the instructions associated with the forms.

In order to comply with program rules applicants must follow the posting rules, which state that an applicant's Form 465 must be posted on the RHCD web site for 28 days prior to selecting a service provider and receiving funding. RHCD recommends that applicants post as soon as the filing window opens in order to avoid posting violations.

Only six weeks are left for applicants to post their year three FCC Form 465, before the funding period ends 6/30/01. [In practice, because RHCD needs a few days to post and posting lasts 28 days, forms must be in by early May to receive more than a few days year 3 support.]

Year Four (7/1/01-6/30/02) update

The application window opened March 26, 2001 for year four applications and RHCD has already received over 125 FCC Form 465's. All RHCD forms (465, 466, 467, 468) have been revised and approved by the FCC for year 4 and applicants MUST use these new forms. All forms can be downloaded from the RHCD web site and Form 465 can be completed on line, however the signature page must still be mailed to the RHCD.

Audits of beneficiaries

The RHCD will conduct site audits of beneficiaries and will notify selected applicants and their telephone companies prior to the site visit.

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