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.
April 1, 2026
Last Day to Submit FY2026 Funding Requests!
The Funding Year (FY) 2026 filing window opened on December 1, 2025, and closes today. This means all funding requests (FCC Forms 462 or 466) must be submitted no later than 11:59 p.m. ET this evening.
The following resources have been posted to the USAC website to assist applicants that are submitting the FCC Form 462 for the Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Program through the RHC program online application platform, RHC Connect:
The following resources have been posted to the USAC website to assist applicants that are submitting the FCC Form 466 for the Telecommunications (Telecom) Program in RHC Connect:
The RHC Customer Service Center will be open until midnight. Please reach out to them by email at RHC-Assist@usac.org, or by phone at (800)453-1546.
NOTE: Forms that are in draft status are not considered submitted. Each FCC Form 462 and 466 must be signed, certified, and submitted prior to the April 1st deadline to be considered for funding. Learn more about filing windows.
March 27, 2026
RHC Program Inflation-Based Cap Announced for FY2026
The Rural Health Care (RHC) program funding cap for funding year (FY) 2026 is $744,161,841. The internal cap for upfront payments and multi-year commitments under the Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) Program is $187,898,8742. The internal cap for upfront payments and multi-year commitments will apply only if RHC program demand exceeds available funding. These new caps represent a 2.8 percent inflation-adjusted increase to the $723,892,841 RHC program funding cap and the $182,780,877 internal cap on multi-year commitments and upfront payments from FY2025. Read the announcement.
