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.
Once you apply as a consortium, you can find your consortium’s rurality percentage when you log in to My Portal, the RHC program’s online application filing system.
Note: The FCC considers each health care site or location as an individual health care site for purposes of calculating support under the RHC program. Therefore, each site must demonstrate that, by itself, it is an eligible entity.