Eligibility for Healthcare Connect Funds

Who is eligible for the Healthcare Connect Fund?

Healthcare organizations must complete a form to determine eligibility for Healthcare Connect Funds (HCF).

What types of healthcare organizations are eligible for funds from the Healthcare Connect Fund?

According to the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), your healthcare facility or site(s) must meet the following requirements:

1. Must be a public or non-profit organization

2. Must be one of these types of facilities:

• A post-secondary educational institution offering healthcare instruction, such as teaching hospitals or medical schools

• A community health center or health center providing healthcare to migrants

• A local health department or agency

• A community mental health center

• A not-for-profit hospital

• A rural health clinic

• A dedicated emergency room of a rural for-profit hospital

• A skilled nursing facility (SNF), or a consortium of health care providers (HCPs) that includes at least one of the facilities mentioned in (a) through (h). Non-rural healthcare facilities can receive funding as long as they are members of the consortium and as long as more than 50% of the consortium’s members are in rural sites.

Your Off-site Data Center and Administrative Offices

Also eligible are off-site data centers and administrative offices that you use for healthcare purposes. USAC also provides support for connections used by eligible HCPs between.

• Eligible HCP sites and off-site data centers or off-site administrative offices

• Two off-site data centers

• Two off-site administrative offices

• An off-site data center and the public Internet or another network

• An off-site administrative office and an off-site data center or the public Internet or another network.

Consortiums Can Apply for HCF

Consortium groups of healthcare sites can apply as one entity. Each consortium has one consortium leader who files the HCF forms on behalf of the everyone in the consortium.

Each site or facility in the consortium must meet the first two of the eligibility criteria listed above. This includes being a non-profit or public facility. Both rural and non-rural healthcare facilities can receive funding as long as they are members of the consortium and as long as more than 50% of the consortium’s members are rural sites.

What expenses are eligible for Healthcare Connect Funds?

Services that are eligible for reimbursement:

• Reasonable and customary installation charges

• Lit Fiber Lease

• Dark Fiber

• Connections to research and education networks

• HCP connections between off-site data centers and administrative offices

• Upfront charges for deployment of new or upgraded facilities

Eligible equipment includes:

• Equipment necessary to make broadband service functional

• Equipment necessary to manage, control, or maintain broadband service or a dedicated health care broadband network

Network Design is eligible

Expenses associated with network design, engineering, operations, installation, and construction of the network.

How much money is awarded for eligible expenses?

The Healthcare Connect Fund (HCF) can reduce your healthcare organization’s broadband expenses with up to a 65% discount on all eligible expenses.

Need to know more about which expenses are eligible?

For a detailed explanation of eligible expenses, go to the Federal Communications Commission website.

Need more details about the Healthcare Connect Fund?

On this web page, the Federal Communications Commission has a full list of answers for frequently asked questions about the Healthcare Connect Fund. This includes more detailed information about eligibility for the HCF.