Rural Health Care Outreach Conference Call Minutes
Thursday, September 13, 2001

The deadline for Form 466/468 packets has been finalized. All packets must be sent to RHCD postmarked by Friday, October 26. This replaces the previously announced deadline of September 30th. Service providers are reminded that if they have a Form 468, it must be returned to the health care provider, for forwarding with Form 466 to RHCD in time to meet the OCTOBER 26TH DEADLINE.

Applicants are reminded to send all correspondence and forms to RHCD's new address in New Jersey at: Rural Health Care Division, 80 S. Jefferson, Whippany, NJ 07981

RHCD has decided not to change any FCC forms for Funding Year 5. This should make the application process easier for applicants already familiar with the current forms.

RHCD is considering an informal telco training session for service providers planning to attend the Schools and Libraries Division's workshop, scheduled for October 11 and 12 in Washington, DC RHCD will hold its session on the morning of October 11, prior to the SLD sessions if telcos are interested. A conference call dedicated to telco training is also under consideration to be held in October. If you are already registered for SLD's workshop, please contact RHCD at 1-800-229-5476 to indicate interest in the October 11 RHCD workshop.

Applicants and service providers are advised to include percentage based taxes in their estimated support on the Form 466/468 packet, if they pay such taxes on their services. Applicants should check with their service provider to see if taxes are included in the quoted rates.

Health care providers should retain phone bills or copies of their phone bills for audit purposes. If a field audit is conducted, HCPs must provide such documentation to verify that the services and amounts supported were paid as represented on the application.

Applicants are reminded to include documentation of the urban rate in their Form 466/468 packet, if they seek support under a rate comparison. Acceptable forms of documentation include an urban telco rate sheet or tariff page, or a statement of urban rates on the urban or rural telco's letterhead.

RHCD suggests that HCPs reduce the time for RHCD to process their application by responding to the faxed sheet they receive asking if any bids were received. RHCD waits two weeks for a response and if none is received, assumes the HCP received no bids. The two-week wait is avoided by a prompt response, so RHCD can continue processing the application.

RHCD disbursed $284,000 in invoices last week, bringing current total Funding Year 3 paid support to $2.8 million. Current total Funding Commitments for Year 3 are $5.8 million.

RHCD is considering turning the Support Schedule into the invoicing document. If a service provider is interested in reviewing the proposed new document, please contact Karen Mogensen at 1-800-229-5476.