May 16, 2014 – Each year, the Universal Service Administrative Company (USAC) makes available $400 million in funding through the Rural Health Care (RHC) program, to be used for telecommunications and Internet services for health care providers located in rural areas. However, according to USAC, only $81 million was granted in 2011, due in large part to a lack of program awareness. Carolina Digital Phone, a North Carolina based Interconnected-VoIP provider of advanced network communications and hosted VoIP services, urges rural health care providers to apply for RHC funding in order to take advantage of discounts on hosted VoIP telecommunications services.
The Rural Health Care Telecommunications Program provides qualifying rural health care providers with discounts on a variety of telecommunication services including Hosted VoIP, Ethernet, fiber, Internet access charges. The discounts enable rural health care providers to save on current telecommunications and Internet services, upgrade to more advanced solutions, or even install new and improved technology.
Today’s health care organizations face a wide range of challenges—such as medical error reduction, efficient practice management, asset and resource tracking, patient privacy requirements, patient data storage, government regulation compliance, and limited financial resources — all while maintaining and improving the quality of patient care.
“Rural health care providers need access to high-speed Internet and telecommunications services to meet the demands of today’s health care industry. Typically, their communications expenses are higher than their peers in more populated areas because the lack of commercial business development discourages the expansion of these services into rural areas,” said Nicky Smith, Carolina Digital‘s President. “As an service provider, Carolina Digital Phone working with it’s partners have extensive experience working with rural health care providers to give them access to the services they need in order to operate effectively and efficiently — benefiting their patients, physicians, and staff — every day.”
Eligible health care providers must apply by June 2 to receive a full 12 months of funding for the 2013 funding year (July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014). Applications are accepted year round, but after June 2, financial support is pro-rated based on the date of the application.
Dedicated E-Rate Specialist: Converged Networks and Carolina Digital Phone, with their dedicated staff of specialists, will work with you on E-Rate Funding and will work with the Universal Service Administrative Company as you get funding for your projects. Our E-Rate specialists have many years of experience in E-Rate funding, implementation and deployment. You may contact an E-Rate specialist by calling Mike Hauer at (843) 725-3200.
