The FCC has adopted a Report and Order that raises the annual funding cap for the Universal Service Fund’s Rural Health Care Program to $571 million. The program’s previous $400 million budget was set in 1997 and never indexed for inflation. The $171 million increase represents what the funding level would be today had the 1997 cap included an inflation adjustment. Henceforth, the Commission will adjust the cap annually for inflation and allow unspent funds from previous years to be carried forward.
