What is the Healthcare Connect Fund?
The Healthcare Connect Fund was created by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. It is a federal program that falls under the FCC and managed by the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) that provides a 65% discount on eligible broadband connectivity expenses for eligible rural Health Care Providers (HCPs). You can apply as an individual Health Care Provider or as a *Consortium.

You are eligible to receive funding from the program if your health care site meets all of the following criteria.

Your site:

  1. Must be a public or nonprofit entity
  2. Must be one of the following types of facilities:
    1. A post-secondary educational institution offering healthcare instruction, such as teaching hospitals or medical schools
    2. A community health center or health center providing healthcare to migrants
    3. A local health department or agency
    4. A community mental health center
    5. A not-for-profit hospital
    6. A rural health clinic
    7. A dedicated emergency room of a rural for-profit hospital
    8. A skilled nursing facility (SNF), or
    9. A Consortium of health care providers (HCPs) that includes at least one of the facilities mentioned in (a) through (h)
  3. Must be in a rural location as defined by the FCC. If your site is not located in a rural area, it still may be eligible to apply to the HCF program as part of a Consortium

One end must be a participating HCP (Both ends for Admin or Data Center)

  • Dark Fiber
  • Internet Access (Broadband, DIA, EDIA)
  • ISDN PRI
  • MPLS
  • Ethernet
  • SDWAN
  • Satellite Service
  • Wavelength
  • VPN
  • TI/DSI,T3/DS3

Circuits to off-site data centers and administrative offices that your facility uses for healthcare purposes are eligible for funding. Specifically: (i) between eligible HCP sites and off-site data centers or off-site administrative offices, (ii) between two off-site data centers, (iii) between two off-site administrative offices, (iv) between an off-site data center and the public Internet or another network, and (v) between an off-site administrative office and an off-site data center or the public Internet or another network

Yes, related equipment and services include:

  • Equipment that terminates an eligible circuit
  • Routers, switches, and firewalls directly connected to the facility or terminating equipment
  • Computers, servers and related hardware and software exclusively used for network management
  • Third-party network support
    • Network redesign
    • Network operation support
    • Installation and network equipment provisioning and maintenance

Yes. Urban HCPs (Hospitals, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC), Skilled nursing facilities and Community mental health centers) can receive support from the program, as long as they apply as part of a Consortium that has a majority of eligible rural HCP.

A Consortium is a group of health care sites that apply as one entity. Each participating facility must meet the first two eligibility requirements, being public or non-profit and being one of the eligible facility types. Both rural and non-rural health care facilities may receive funding when included in a consortium.

With the guidance and policy created by the FCC, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) is a not-for-profit designated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that administers the Universal Service Fund (USF). Almost $10 billion is available and over $700 million of these funds are made available through the rural healthcare program.

Program Resources

Healthcare Connect Fund

RURAL HEALTHCARE PROGRAM (RHCP)

What is a Consortium?

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