"Two Native American tribes in South Dakota, the Yankton Sioux and Crow Creek Sioux, have hired lobbyists to push for reforms to the Indian Health Service," Bob Herman reports for Axios.
The move is an attempt to drive Congress to act on repeated calls for reform to the IHS, which many say provides inadequate and sometimes incompetent care to Native Americans. A blistering article in The Wall Street Journal in July brought widespread attention to the problems plaguing the agency. The IHS hospital in Winnebago, Neb., for example, lost its Medicare and Medicaid certification in 2015 because the hospital's staffing and care posed "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety," Herman reports for Modern Healthcare.
Native Americans often must rely on the chronically underfunded IHS hospitals, since many if not most live in rural areas where there are few if any other health care providers available, Eric Whitney reports for NPR.
Tribes are also concerned about inadequate funding for the agency. President Trump proposed cutting the 2018 IHS budget by about $300 million, though Congress' stopgap funding bill in December did include $1.1 million to maintain a new clinic in Flandreu, S.D. Herman reports that the clinic almost closed because IHS suggested less funding and didn't inform the locals.
Another concern is the long delay in approving a new IHS director. "It's been two months since President Donald Trump nominated Quapaw tribal member Robert Weaver to the job. But the agency hasn't had a permanent leader for nearly two years," The Associated Press reports.
The move is an attempt to drive Congress to act on repeated calls for reform to the IHS, which many say provides inadequate and sometimes incompetent care to Native Americans. A blistering article in The Wall Street Journal in July brought widespread attention to the problems plaguing the agency. The IHS hospital in Winnebago, Neb., for example, lost its Medicare and Medicaid certification in 2015 because the hospital's staffing and care posed "immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety," Herman reports for Modern Healthcare.
Native Americans often must rely on the chronically underfunded IHS hospitals, since many if not most live in rural areas where there are few if any other health care providers available, Eric Whitney reports for NPR.
Tribes are also concerned about inadequate funding for the agency. President Trump proposed cutting the 2018 IHS budget by about $300 million, though Congress' stopgap funding bill in December did include $1.1 million to maintain a new clinic in Flandreu, S.D. Herman reports that the clinic almost closed because IHS suggested less funding and didn't inform the locals.
Another concern is the long delay in approving a new IHS director. "It's been two months since President Donald Trump nominated Quapaw tribal member Robert Weaver to the job. But the agency hasn't had a permanent leader for nearly two years," The Associated Press reports.
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