April 24, 2026
FCC Waives Certain RHC Program Rules in Response to Typhoon Sinlaku
On April 23, 2026, the FCC released order DA 26-396 waiving the following Rural Health Care Program (RHC) rules for participants and service providers located in areas affected by Typhoon Sinlaku:
- Deadline for Appeals and Requests for Waiver – The FCC waives the 60-day deadlines for requests for review or waiver of decisions by USAC or the FCC and provides an additional 60 days to file appeals and waivers. This waiver is in effect for all deadlines of appeals and waiver requests from April 12, 2026, through September 21, 2026.
- Information Requests – The FCC waives the 14-day deadline for applicants in the affected areas to respond to Information Requests from USAC related to funding requests, appeals and waivers, invoices, audits, and other documentation submitted by program participants. This waiver will apply to all Information Requests issued on or after April 12, 2026, regardless of the related funding year. The new deadline for responding to Information requests is September 21, 2026.
- Documentation Retention and Production – Due to possible lost records, the FCC waives the rule that applicants and service providers must retain all documents for at least five years after the last day of the supported services in a given funding year. If lost records are later requested by USAC or the FCC, program participants will not be penalized, but applicants and service providers will be held responsible for obtaining such records, where available, from a third party. Program participants that are affected also must certify that the records were destroyed in the typhoon. Current rules apply to all records that were not destroyed.
- Invoice Filing Deadline – The FCC waives the invoicing deadline for FY2025 funding requests and grants the automatic 120-day extension. Thus, for single-year funding commitments that previously had a deadline of October 28, 2026, the new deadline will be February 25, 2027.
April 24, 2026
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Maintenance: April 26, 2026
RHC Connect will be unavailable on Sunday, April 26, 2026, from 7 p.m. until midnight ET due to system maintenance. During this time, users will be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
April 17, 2026
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Upgrade: April 17, 2026
RHC Connect may be unavailable on Friday, April 17, 2026, from 7:00 p.m.- midnight ET due to a scheduled system upgrade. During this time, users may be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
For more information, visit the RHC Connect Updates webpage.
April 2, 2026
RHC Connect Outage Due to System Maintenance: April 5, 2026
RHC Connect will be unavailable on Sunday, April 5, 2026, from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. ET due to system maintenance. During this time, users will be unable to log in to and use RHC Connect. We apologize for any inconvenience.
