Rural Health Care Outreach Conference Call Minutes
April 10, 2003

The Form 465 filing window for Funding Year 2003 (July 1, 2003 – June 30, 2004) opened on March 26. Please post your forms as soon as possible to ensure a full 12 months of support. For the Funding Year 2003, RHCD has instituted a number of improvements to make the process easier for applicants:

• Electronic certification has been simplified to increase the number of applicants who can take advantage of the time saving process. In order to enable e-cert, a health care provider must have posted a Form 465 for any funding Funding Year, starting with funding year 2000. The HCP representative must simply use the HCP number and password to log in and enable e-certification. As of this date, RHCD has posted 355 Form 465s, of which 321 have been e-certed.

• The draft version of the new Form 466 is now available for review on the RHCD website. This new and improved form will replace the current Form 466/468 packets, removing the 468 from the process. The form is currently under review at the Office of Management and Budget. Once the form has been approved, the final version will be available on the RHCD website for download and for electronic certification. Applicants who e-certify the form will find that it will be pre-populated with the previous year’s information, if available.

• As has been discussed on previous calls, RHCD will also post rates for the most commonly supported services for urban cities across the country, to assist applicants who seek support using the urban/rural comparison. These rates have been obtained from publicly filed tariffs. RHCD has worked with telecommunications companies to verify these rates, and is currently working with the FCC for their approval. The rates will be available as a “safe harbor” for applicants – usable if the applicant does not wish or cannot obtain an urban rate..Applicants still, however, have the option to obtain, verify and submit an urban rate as is currently the case.

RHCD will be launching a redesigned website in the near future. Materials and documents will remain the same, but will be reorganized for easier reference. Previews will be available on the website in the coming weeks before the transition.

Over 50 percent of Funding Year 2002 (July 1, 2002 – June 30, 2003) Form 466/468 packets are still outstanding. If you have posted a Form 465 for the funding year, send in the forms as soon as possible.

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