FCC Seeks Comment on Extending Rural Health Care Pilot Program Funding

The Federal Communications Commission’s Wireline Competition Bureau seeks comment on whether to fund Rural Health Care Pilot Program (Pilot Program) participants who will exhaust funding allocated to them before or during funding year 2012 (July 1, 2012-June 30, 2013).

This funding would maintain support for qualifying Pilot Program participants, on an interim basis, during the 2012 funding year to provide time to establish a process to transition them into the permanent Rural Health Care support mechanism (RHC support mechanism). To support these transitioning Pilot Program participants, the funds that were previously designated for projects that withdrew from the Program or otherwise failed to meet the June 30, 2011, deadline could be used without increasing overall demand. Comments are due April 18, 2012; Reply Comments are due May 3.