FCC to Begin Review of Rural Health Care Program

On July 16, 2026, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a draft Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) and Order in its long-running Promoting Telehealth in Rural America proceeding (WC Docket No. 17-310). The FCC's Rural Health Care (RHC) Program provides universal service financial support to help rural health care providers obtain telecommunications and broadband services at discounted rates, facilitating the delivery of telehealth to some of the most remote areas in the nation. According to the FCC's 2025 Universal Service Monitoring Report, nearly 14,000 health care providers received support from this Universal Service Fund program that year. The program disbursed $523 million in 2024, and the FY2026 cap is $744.2 million. The stakes in this proceeding are practical: for a rural clinic or hospital, the program can determine whether it can afford the connectivity that links geographically isolated patients to medical expertise. The draft FNPRM touches nearly every constituency in the RHC program. Health care providers in eight statutory categories—including not-for-profit hospitals, rural health clinics, community health centers, local health departments, community mental health centers, skilled nursing facilities, teaching institutions offering health care instruction, and consortia of these entities—are eligible to participate. Service providers, particularly in Alaska, where demand has concentrated, face the most direct changes: the draft FNPRM reexamines how the rates that determine their support payments are calculated and documented. And the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC), which administers the Universal Service Fund, would see its responsibilities altered under several proposals. The FCC frames the entire package as an effort "to reduce burdens and costs on RHC Program participants while protecting the limited resources of the Universal Service Fund by preventing waste, fraud, and abuse," and asks commenters to explain how their positions further both goals.