Rural Health Care
About Rural Health Care:
- Overview of the Program
- Overview of the Process
- Monthly Conference Calls
- Site Visits
- Understanding Audits
- Filing Appeals
- Rural Health Care Pilot Program
Rural Health Care Tools:
Step 3: Selecting the Most Cost Effective Service Provider
In choosing a service provider, a health care provider must consider all bids received and select the most cost-effective method to meet its requirements.
The most cost-effective method is defined by the FCC as "the method of least cost after consideration of the features, quality of transmission, reliability, and other factors relevant to choosing a method of providing the required services."
To be eligible to receive Rural Health Care support for telecommunications services, the selected carrier must be a "common carrier" as defined by the FCC. If a health care provider is unsure whether a telecommunications service provider is a common carrier, call USAC's Client Services Bureau at 1-888-641-8722 for more information. Any telecommunications service and/or Internet access necessary for the provision of health care is eligible for support, but equipment charges are not eligible for support. See Eligible Services List for a list of eligible services.
All Internet service providers are eligible to participate in the program. However, only the monthly charge for Internet access is eligible for support.
