| Commitments and Contingencies
Rural Health Care (“RHC”) Program
Subsidiaries of GCI Holdings receive support from various Universal Service Fund ("USF") programs including the RHC Program. The USF programs are subject to change by regulatory actions taken by the Federal Communications Commission ("FCC") or legislative actions. The following paragraphs describe certain separate matters related to the RHC Program that impact or could impact the revenue earned by the Company.
On November 30, 2018, a subsidiary of GCI Holdings received multiple funding denial notices from Universal Service Administrative Company ("USAC"), denying requested funding from the RHC Program operated by a rural health customer (the "Customer") for the funding year that ended on June 30, 2018. In November 2017, USAC requested information from the Customer related to bidding process documentation for two separate service contracts a subsidiary of GCI Holdings has with the Customer. Although the Customer timely responded, USAC found that bids previously received were not submitted with the original funding request and/or that bidding information submitted was related to the wrong bidding year. The Customer filed an appeal with USAC on January 29, 2019 and made a supplemental filing on March 12, 2019.
On May 6, 2019, the Customer received a letter from USAC that denied the Customer’s appeal for all requested funding on the basis that the Customer failed to indicate that it had received, and failed to submit copies of, the responses or bids received, when it originally sought funding from the RHC Program under the two service contracts that a subsidiary of GCI Holdings has with the Customer. The Customer appealed USAC’s decision to the Wireline Competition Bureau of the FCC on July 5, 2019 but resolution and the timing of the appeal are unknown at this time. As of March 31, 2019, GCI Holdings had accounts receivable of approximately $21.3 million outstanding associated with these two service contracts, which is dependent upon receipt of funding from USAC. Given that USAC has denied the Customer’s appeal as specifically outlined in the May 6, 2019 letter received by the Customer, it is probable that GCI Holdings has incurred a loss and an accounts receivable reserve has been recorded in the amount of $21.3 million and an associated bad debt expense has been recorded during the first quarter of 2019, and included within selling, general, and administrative expense in the condensed consolidated statements of operations. Additionally, because of the uncertainty of the Customer's future appeals process and uncertainty relating to our ability to recover payment directly from the Customer, we no longer believe revenue associated with the two service contracts should be recognized due to the unpredictability surrounding the collection of consideration under these two service contracts currently being denied by USAC. Revenue has not been recognized beyond the first quarter of 2019 and will not be recognized until an adequate level of clarity is reached on the matter and the applicable revenue recognition criteria are met.
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