Recent Grants

Eligibility Details

Public and not-for-profit health care providers are eligible to receive support under the Healthcare Connect Fund. Health care provider” is defined by statute as hospitals, rural health clinics, local health departments, community health centers or health centers providing health care to migrant workers and post-secondary educational institutions offering heath care instruction, teaching hospitals, and medical schools.

To be eligible a health care site must meet all of the following criteria:

Your site:

1. Must be a public or nonprofit entity
2. Must be one of the following types of facilities:
   1. A post-secondary educational institution offering healthcare instruction, such as teaching hospitals or medical schools,
   2. A community health center or health center providing healthcare to migrants,
   3. A local health department or agency,
   4. A community mental health center,
   5. A not-for-profit hospital,
   6. A rural health clinic,
   7. A dedicated emergency room of a rural for-profit hospital
   8. A skilled nursing facility (SNF), or
   9. A consortium of health care providers (HCPs) that includes at least one of the facilities mentioned in (a) through (h).
3. Must be in a rural location as defined by the FCC. If your site is not located in a rural area, it still may be eligible to apply to the HCF program as part of a consortium*.

*A consortium is a group of health care sites that apply as one entity. Each consortium has one consortium leader who files the required forms on behalf of everyone in the group.

• Each facility in the consortium must meet the first two eligibility criteria, i.e., be public or non-profit and one of the eligible facility types. Both rural and non-rural health care facilities can receive funding as members of a consortium as long as more than 50% of the consortium's members are rural sites.

Deadline Details

Funding Year (FY) 2025 will take place from July 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026.

For FY2026, applicants can begin the competitive bidding process & submit request for service form as early as July 1, 2025. The filing window for FY2026 is from December 1, 2025 through April 1, 2026. This means that applicants must submit funding requests (FCC Forms 462 or 466) as early as December 1, 2025, and no later than 11:59 p.m. ET April 1, 2026. 

Award Details

This is not a grant program.

To apply for this program you must- go to the USAC Healthcare Connect Fund website https://www.usac.org/rural-health-care/healthcare-connect-fund-program/ and complete the 6 steps for funding.

1. Determine Eligibility (FCC Form 460)
2. Develop Evaluation Criteria and Request Services (FCC Form 461)
3. Evaluate Bids and Select a Service Provider
4. Submit your Funding Request (FCC Form 462)
5. Review Funding Commitment Letter
6. Invoice (FCC Form 463).