Alaska Native Tribes Now Own the Hospital They’ve Operated for Decades

Wenona Singel

For nearly three decades, Tribal organizations have operated the programs and services of the Alaska Native Medical Center, but the federal government owned the hospital building. That mismatch ended on August 24, 2026, when IHS transferred the facility to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANTHC) after decades of advocacy by Alaska Tribal leaders.

The transfer places the hospital itself under the control of the Tribal health system responsible for governing, operating, and investing in it. Ownership also gives ANTHC new tools to pursue federal facility-cost funding and other financing for maintenance and modernization, an important shift for a hospital in which ANTHC has already approved more than $462 million in investment. With the transfer, patient eligibility, services, employment, and current operational roles will continue as before, but now in a physical institution owned by ANTHC.

Click the image above to watch ANTHC’s video announcement of the transfer of the Alaska Native Medical Center to Tribal ownership.