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Become a Participant

We're glad that you're seriously considering joining the network!

While Oregon Health Network's (OHN) beginnings aligned with our FCC Rural Health Care Pilot Program award that brought with it many "eligibility" requirements of its own, OHN was formed and is designed to serve ALL providers and organizations who play a role in the contiuum of care - regardless of size, type or eligibility status.

Who should be on the network?

How can you determine if your organization is eligible for the FCC RHCPP subsidy?

The FCC RHCPP was designed to support and subsidize (85% of the non and monthly reoccurring) connections from eligible non-profit organization/site to the OHN NOC at NWAX. Specifically, non-profit providers that fit into one of the following categories.

  • Community health centers or health centers providing health care to migrants
  • Community mental health centers
  • Consortia of health care providers consisting of one or more of hte above endtiies
  • Local health care departments or agencies including dedicated emergency departments of rural for-profit hospitals
  • Not-for-profit hospitals
  • Other emergency services
  • Part-time eligible entities located otherwise in in-eligible facilities
  • Post-secondary education facility
  • Rural health clinics, including mobile clinics

See "Audit Preparation & Appropriate Use" information for details on how the FCC RHCPP encourages you to use the OHN connection, for approved services. But meanwhile, the deadline for OHN having RHCPP vendor contracts approved is June 30, 2011 unless OHN gets our 6-month extension request granted. We're hopeful, and if that is the case, we will be accepting additional applications for these funds. So if you're interested, let us know as soon as possible so that when and if we get an extension, we can contact you.

What if you're not eligible for the FCC RHCPP subsidy, and still desire to connect, what are the steps and financial obligations to get connected?

There are definite pros and obvious cons for not being eligible for the subsidy. The downside is of course not benefitting from having 100% of your installation costs to get connected to the OHN NOC at NWAX (85% from the FCC, 85% from OHN's match) as well as having 85% of your monthly recurring telecom costs being covered through May 2014. The upside is that you're not in anyway restricted or inhibited by the FCC's rules. And while this is truly a big advantage, we understand that it doesn't pay the bills. Therefore, we want you to know that at every level of our organization, OHN is passionately committed to finding a way to support getting FCC in-eligible for-profit providers on the network both at a policy/education level, and in trying to find additional funding to assist you in getting your OHN connection.

When in doubt - just contact OHN staff to walk you through the process. But in essence, we will work with you to walk through the following steps and processes:

  1. Supply us with information on your current vendor contract, connection and network design: This will assist staff in conducting an initial assessment at a technology level, as to what the best plan and path is for you.
  2. Identify a vendor that will contractually agree to live up to OHN's service level agreements (SLA's): Due to us being required to manage our RHCPP competitive bidding process for all our participants, we have in essence become masters of the RFP process, Also as a result of the RHCPP program, we have also engaged over 10 vendors across the state that already know how to live up to our standards. Therefore, we're poised to assist you in working with your existing vendor, or in finding another through an RFP process, to get the best service at the best price and to move your existing connection over to OHN.
  3. Costs that you'll be responsible for include
    • 100% of your non-recurring (installation) telcom costs to get a 10mbps connection (minimum requirement) to NWAX
    • 100% of your monthly-recurring telecom costs
    • OHN's annual participation fee's. We have "ceilings" and "floors" for they type of provider that you are.

NO OBLIGATION GUARANTEE: Contact us today at info [at] oregonhealthnet [dot] org to see if OHN and or the FCC RHCPP program is right for you.