SECTION 165:59-7-1. Reimbursement from the OUSF for Special Universal Service

(a)   An OUSF Beneficiary may be eligible to receive funding from both the OUSF and other state or federal funds; however, in no instance will there be a double recovery. If the OUSF Beneficiary receives funding from another state or federal fund for an investment or expense already reimbursed by the OUSF, the OUSF Beneficiary shall notify the eligible provider, and thereafter the eligible provider shall reduce the amount of its credit to the OUSF Beneficiary and its prospective funding request from the OUSF by an equivalent amount. The OUSF Beneficiary shall make every reasonable effort to obtain funding from another state and/or federal fund designated to support special universal service. The OUSF Beneficiary shall provide the OUSF Administrator with information regarding the OUSF Beneficiary's request for funding from government sources designed to support the provisioning of the Special Universal Service, i.e. the federal schools and libraries program or federal rural health care program, or an explanation of why such funding is not available, or why the OUSF Beneficiary did not request such funding. Failure to provide such documentation may result in the OUSF Administrator denying the request for Special Universal Service funding from the OUSF. The OUSF Beneficiary shall provide evidence of any exemption it has to obtain funding from another state or federal fund designated to support Special Universal Services.

(b)   Completing alternative funding requests in a manner that results in reduced alternative funding, for which the OUSF Beneficiary would have otherwise been eligible, may reduce OUSF funding.

(c)   The OUSF Administrator will utilize the following procedures when evaluating a request for OUSF funding for Internet access to a public school or public library:

(1)   A fair and open competitive bidding process shall be used to select the services and eligible provider for which OUSF funding will be sought, including costs for Internet access to schools and libraries for the balance not paid by E-rate.

(2)   An affidavit will be required from the public school or public library that the bid information submitted to the OUSF Administrator for review contains all the bids received by the school or library. All evaluation tools utilized by the OUSF Beneficiary while reviewing the bids, including all received bids, must be provided to the OUSF Administrator at the Commission offices or in a manner approved by the OUSF Administrator.

(3)   The OUSF will not reimburse charges for redundant service(s); however, if the eligible provider is unable to provision the eligible bandwidth using a single access line, the OUSF Beneficiary may choose to employ multiple access lines to provision the eligible bandwidth level established by the SETDA standard, as long as all lines are provisioned by the same eligible provider. The OUSF Administrator may waive this requirement for good cause shown.

(4)   The OUSF shall not fund more than one eligible provider for the same service at the same location for the same time period, except during a transition period from one eligible provider to another. Such funding during a transition period shall not exceed thirty (30) calendar days.

(5)   The OUSF will fund either the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, or a bid that is no more than 25% above the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, inclusive of all non-recurring eligible charges, for the eligible bandwidth range of the OUSF Beneficiary. If the selected bid is more than 25% above the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, the OUSF will fund the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid plus the 25%.

(6)   The OUSF Beneficiary's request for bids shall clearly identify the minimum and a maximum bandwidth at standard available levels as suggested in guidelines promulgated by the FCC or Commission rules.

(7)   Once OUSF funding has been approved pursuant to the Oklahoma Telecommunications Act, the eligible provider should submit monthly payment reports to the OUSF Administrator or the contracted agent on a monthly basis. The initial payment will be as necessary to pay all amounts approved but not yet received by the eligible provider. After the initial monthly payment request is submitted, a monthly payment request should be submitted by the eligible provider to collect the amount of credit provided to the OUSF Beneficiary. The monthly payment requests shall be paid on the next regularly scheduled payment date. A new Request for OUSF Funding must be filed to recover any monthly payment amount that exceeds ninety (90) days of service, unless otherwise agreed to by the OUSF Administrator.

(8)   Monthly payment reports must be received in the form and content prescribed by the OUSF Administrator.

(9)   The OUSF Administrator will post to the Commission website a copy of the monthly payment report within five (5) business days of the payment report being approved by the OUSF Administrator.

(10)   Monthly recurring amounts or other funding related changes (e.g. level of bandwidth, or changes in E-rate discount amount) will not be increased from the approved amount without supporting documentation being made available to the OUSF Administrator.

(11)   Funding for eligible services, including federal funding, shall not exceed actual eligible expenses.

(d)   The OUSF Administrator will utilize the following procedures when evaluating a request for OUSF funding for a telemedicine line:

(1)   A fair and open competitive bidding process shall be used to select the services and eligible provider for which OUSF funding will be sought, including costs for Internet access to eligible healthcare entities.

(2)   An affidavit will be required from the eligible healthcare entity that the bid information submitted to the OUSF Administrator for review contains all the bids received by the eligible healthcare entity. All evaluation tools utilized by the OUSF Beneficiary while reviewing the bids, including all received bids, must be provided to the OUSF Administrator.

(3)   The OUSF will not reimburse charges for redundant service(s); however, the eligible healthcare entity may choose to employ multiple access lines to provision the eligible bandwidth level established by the FCC, and as stated in OAC 165:59-7-6(c), as long as all lines are provisioned by the same eligible provider.

(4)   The OUSF shall not fund more than one eligible provider for the same service at the same location for the same time period, except during a transition period from one eligible provider to another. Such funding during a transition period shall not exceed thirty (30) calendar days.

(5)   The OUSF will fund reasonable installation and/or reasonable construction charges. These charges shall be evaluated as part of the OUSF Administrator's analysis of lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid selection by the OUSF Beneficiary. Installation charges, construction charges, early termination fees, and charges assessed upon the expiration of a contract will be amortized over the initial term of the contract when determining the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid.

(6)   The OUSF will fund either the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, or a bid that is no more than 25% above the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, inclusive of all non-recurring eligible charges, for the eligible bandwidth range provided in OAC 165:59-7-6(c) of the OUSF Beneficiary. If the selected bid is more than 25% above the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid, the OUSF will fund the lowest cost reasonable qualifying bid plus the 25%.

(7)   Once OUSF funding has been approved pursuant to the Oklahoma Telecommunications Act, the eligible provider should submit monthly payment reports to the OUSF Administrator or the contracted agent on a monthly basis. The initial payment will be as necessary to pay all amounts approved but not yet received by the eligible provider. After the initial monthly payment request is submitted, a monthly payment request should be submitted by the eligible provider to collect the amount of credit provided to the eligible healthcare entity. The monthly payment requests shall be paid on the next regularly scheduled payment date. A new Request for OUSF Funding must be filed to recover any monthly payment amount that exceeds ninety (90) days of service, unless otherwise agreed to by the OUSF Administrator.

(8)   Monthly payment reports must be received in the form and content prescribed by the OUSF Administrator.

(9)   The OUSF Administrator will post to the Commission website a copy of the monthly payment report within five (5) business days of the payment report being approved by the OUSF Administrator.

(10)   Monthly recurring amounts or other funding related changes (i.e. level of bandwidth) will not be increased from the approved amount without supporting documentation being made available to the OUSF Administrator.

(11)   Funding for eligible services, including federal funding, shall not exceed actual eligible expenses.

(12)   Increases in cost caused by the expiration of a contract will not be permitted via the monthly payment process when the new cost is higher than 10% of the expired contract and when there is no new contract in place. A new Request for OUSF Funding will need to be filed in the Commission's Court Clerk to recover any difference in prices caused by an expired contract.

(13)   Reimbursement of the cost for any additional service above and beyond the telemedicine bandwidth on contracts and invoices will be denied, unless the costs are in compliance with the Oklahoma Telecommunications Act. Invoices provided to request OUSF Funding must contain a breakdown of non-eligible expenses, such as firewall (unless provided as a standard component of Internet access by the eligible provider to all customers with the same type of service and not priced separately), email packages, and domain registration, etc.

(e)   If a Request for Reconsideration is filed and subsequently withdrawn, the OUSF Administrator will pay the determined amount no later than forty-five (45) calendar days after the date the Request for Reconsideration is withdrawn.

[Source: Added at 14 Ok Reg 2562, eff 7-1-97; Amended at 15 Ok Reg 1199, eff 1-6-98 (emergency); Amended at 15 Ok Reg 1919, eff 7-1-98; Amended at 28 Ok Reg 2255, eff 7-25-11; Amended at 29 Ok Reg 1583, eff 7-12-12; Amended at 30 Ok Reg 1581, eff 7-11-13; Amended at 32 Ok Reg 868, eff 8-27-15; Amended at 34 Ok Reg 5, eff 8-12-16 (emergency); Amended at 34 Ok Reg 1011, eff 9-11-17]