Rural Health Care Outreach Conference Call Minutes
December 13, 2001

The window for filing Form 465s for Funding Year 5 will open on January 28, 2002. To make the application process easier for rural HCPs and service providers alike, there will be no program or form changes for Year 5. On January 2, RHC will send out information and tips on applying to all previous applicants to the program.

The ability to file Forms 465 electronically will be available for the opening of Funding Year 5. Electronic certification will allow qualified applicants to file the form online and immediately post it onto RHC's website, without having to sign and send in a paper copy for processing. In order to qualify for e-certification, an applicant must have successfully applied for funding in a previous funding year. To participate, you must have available information from your HCP's previous application. Details about the process will be posted on the RHC website in early January.

RHC has received 375 Form 466/468 packets for Funding Year 4, a relatively low number compared to the number of Forms 465 received to date for Year 4. RHC urges applicants to submit their 466/468 packets for Year 4, in order to receive their support as soon as possible. Coordinators of health care consortia are asked to submit the packets for all of their sites at the same time and identify them as consortium sites. This will expedite the processing as well as reduce the chance of errors occurring in the application.

RHC is in the final stages of processing 466/468 packets for Year 3. Approximately 1/3 of all Year 3 466/468 packets were received in October, the last month for submitting the forms. RHC is working to complete the processing of all of these packets by the third week of January. To that end, if you are contacted by RHC to supply additional information for an application, please respond as soon as possible so that processing can continue.

For Year 3, RHC has committed $9.9 million in support to date to 626 rural health care providers. $6.4 million in support schedules has been issued. To date, $5.7 million has been invoiced and reimbursed to service providers. Please remember when receiving the Funding Commitment Letter to return the Form 467 immediately. This ensures that the Support Schedule can be issued to you and the service provider.

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