Note 5 - Accounts Receivable

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2020

Notes to Financial Statements

Loans, Notes, Trade and Other Receivables Disclosure [Text Block]

5. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

Accounts receivable, net, consists of the following at September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019.

	2020			2019
Retail customers	$	22,412		$	22,101
Wholesale carriers		10,049			13,157
Other		6,158			3,723
		38,619			38,981
Less: allowance for doubtful accounts		(3,415	)		(4,627	)
Accounts receivable, net	$	35,204		$	34,354

The following table presents the activity in the allowance for doubtful accounts for the nine-month period ended September 30, 2020, which is associated entirely with the Company’s contracts with customers.

	2020
Balance at January 1	$	4,627
Provision (recovery) for uncollectible accounts		(955	)
Charged to other accounts		-
Deductions		(257	)
Asset at September 30	$	3,415

The provision for uncollectible accounts is derived through an analysis of account aging profiles and a review of historical recovery experience. Accounts receivable are charged off against the allowance when management confirms it is probable amounts will not be collected. The COVID-19 pandemic has not required a revision of this policy. However, to the extent aging profiles, recovery experience and specific customer accounts have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, such affects are included in the allowance for doubtful accounts.

As of September 30, 2020, the Universal Service Administrative Company (“USAC”) had issued funding commitment letters for all of the Company’s rural health care customer applications for Funding Year 2018 ( July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019). For Funding Year 2019 ( July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2020), the FCC had approved the Company’s cost-based rural rates and USAC had issued funding commitment letters. We filed a request in January 2020 for approval of our RHC rural rates for Funding Year 2020, which began July 1, 2020. The review and approval of these rates is ongoing. We cannot predict when the FCC will act on our pending request for FCC approval of our Funding Year 2020 rural rates nor when USAC will issue funding commitments for RHC-supported services. Accounts receivable, net, associated with rural health care customers was $5,408 and $6,827 at September 30, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively. Rural health care accounts are a component of the Retail Customers category in the above table.