The FCC’s Wireline Competition Bureau approved key rates for one of the largest carriers in Alaska, GCI Communications Corp. (GCI), participating in the agency’s Rural Health Care (RHC) Program. The bureau’s approval will help rural health care providers in the state afford the connectivity they need to deliver critical telemedicine services, while promoting fiscally responsible administration of the program, according to the Commission. The Bureau determined that GCI has now provided sufficient information to justify $77.8 million in RHC funding for FY 2017, a 26 percent reduction from the $105 million originally sought.
The $581 million RHC program includes the telecom program, which is designed to ensure that rural health care providers do not have to pay more for telecommunications services than their urban counterparts.
The telecom program thus enables participating rural health care providers to pay only the (typically lower) urban rate for such services, while paying participating carriers the difference between the urban rate and the (typically higher) rural rate. Carriers in Alaska receive over half of all funding from the telecom program.
In recent years, the FCC found that two non-Alaska carriers apparently falsified documentation to inflate their rural rates—and in turn, boost their payments from the program. The FCC proposed fines against these carriers, totaling nearly $40 million. The FCC and the RHC program administrator have taken steps to ensure that every carrier is following the rules.
October 16, 2018
