Indian Health Service – Page 10

This is a suit against the United States for breach of contract and statute by the Indian Health Service (“IHS”), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). Plaintiff, the Consolidated Tribal Health Project, Inc. (“CTHP”), seeks money damages under the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. § 7101 et seq. (“CDA”), based on the Secretary’s repeated violations of CTHP’s contractual and statutory right to the payment of full funding of contract support costs (“CSC”) for contracts entered under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (“ISDEAA”), Pub. L. No. 93-638, as amended, 25 U.S.C. § 450 et seq.

NYTs Op-Ed: “The Sequester Hits the Reservation”

March 21, 2013March 21, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher3 Comments

Here.

An excerpt:

The sequester will impose cuts of 5 percent across the Indian Health Service, the modestly financed agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services that provides basic health care to two million American Indians and native Alaskans. It is underfinanced for its mission and cannot tolerate more deprivation.

Here lies a little-noticed example of moral abdication. The biggest federal health and safety-net programs — Social Security, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, and veterans’ compensation and health benefits — are all exempt from sequestration. But the Indian Health Service is not.

Susanville Indian Rancheria v. United States — Contract Breach Claim for Failure to Pay IHS Contract Support Costs

March 20, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Susanville v US Complaint

An excerpt:

This is a suit against the United States for breach of contract and statute by the Indian Health Service (“IHS”), an agency in the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”). Plaintiff, the Susanville Indian Rancheria (“Tribe”), seeks money damages under the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. § 7101 et seq. (“CDA”), based on the Secretary’s repeated violations of the Tribe’s contractual and statutory right to the payment of full funding of contract support costs (“CSC”) for contracts entered under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (“ISDEAA”), Pub. L. No. 93-638, as amended, 25 U.S.C. § 450 et seq.

Susanville’s previous suit against IHS is here.

Paul Ryan on the Impacts of a Federal Government Shutdown on Indian Affairs

January 23, 2013Matthew L.M. Fletcher4 Comments

Here:

How would a potential shutdown affect Indian Affairs? How would affect services on Reservations?
According to staff at the House Committee on Natural Resources, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) manages or supervises many of the day-to-day affairs of Indian Reservations, particularly the large land-based tribes west of the Mississippi. They are under the assumption that if money were cut off to the BIA they expect “critical” services relating to law enforcement (i.e., BIA police), Indian Health Services relating to life and limb, resource protection will continue. But other operations, such as reviewing and approving a lease of Indian or tribal land to building a house, to sending a check to an Indian, to providing day care, running some dams and irrigation projects, drilling oil and gas, running Indian school operations would shut down. Non-essential personnel, such as a receptionist in a health clinic, might be furloughed. They are under the impression that essential personnel (i.e. doctors, etc) must work. Also, under a certain law, many tribes throughout the U.S. effectively bypass the BIA and receive appropriated money directly – they then provide services through tribal structures rather than through the BIA bureaucracy. Unless the tribes have amassed some reserves, their funding would cease. While well over a hundred tribes operate casinos, not all provide large profits. Most of them receive federal dollars.