Rural Health Care Pilot Program Deadline May 7

RURAL HEALTH CARE PILOT PROGRAM
[SOURCE: Federal Communications Commission]
On September 26, 2006, the FCC adopted the Rural Health Care Pilot Program Order, which established a rural health care pilot program to encourage the provision of telehealth and telemedicine services throughout the nation. Under the pilot program, selected applicants will receive up to 85 percent of the costs of building state and regional broadband networks and connecting those networks to Internet2 or National LambdaRail, Inc., dedicated nationwide backbone providers, as well as the costs of the advanced telecommunications and information services that will ride over those networks. Selected applicants will also receive up to 85 percent of the costs of connecting to the public Internet. The Order included criteria for applications to participate in the rural health care pilot program. The FCC requested approval of these criteria from the Office of Management and Budget on January 10, 2007.5 On March 8, 2007, the FCC received OMB approval of the information collection requirements. The FCC has announced the deadline of May 7, 2007, for filing applications for its Rural Health Care Pilot Program. This program is intended to help fund broadband networks for rural health care providers. Under the terms of this pilot program, applications to participate in the program are due sixty (60) days from the date of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval of the program. On March 8, 2007, the FCC received approval from OMB for the Rural Health Care Pilot Program. Accordingly, applicants must submit their applications to the FCC no later than May 7, 2007. General filing procedures for applications are detailed in the Rural Health Care Pilot Program Order.
http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/rural/DA-07-1188A1.pdf