"Ms. Yvette Roubideaux, Director of Indian Health Service (“IHS”), recently submitted a column on ICTMN.com, titled “Correcting the Record on the Contract Health Services Program.” This column was in response to the article I previously wrote, “Oversight by IHS Leaves Money on the Table, Patients Holding the Bag.”

The Indian Health Service has made marked improvements as an agency and in its programs while under the Roubideaux Administration. This fact is not in dispute, and we applaud Ms. Roubideaux’s efforts and advances. However, my purpose in writing the column on the Contract Health Services Program (“CHS”) was to highlight deficiencies that still linger despite the program’s progress as an attempt to create the awareness and attention needed to spur additional change.

Real deficiencies exist with regard to the accurate reporting on needed CHS Program funds – that is a reality that does not need correcting. The September 23, 2011 report titled, “Increased Oversight Needed to Ensure Accuracy of Data Used for Estimating Contract Health Service Needed” the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) states, “Due to deficiencies in IHS’s oversight of data collection, the unfunded services data on deferrals and denials that IHS used to estimate program need are incomplete and inconsistent. . . By not encouraging the reporting of unfunded services data from all [CHS] programs, IHS’s data collection activities are not consistent with the Standard for Internal Control in the Federal Government. . .”"

Get the Story:
Lisa R. Shellenberger: The GAO Report Cited IHS Deficiencies, Column Brings them to Light (Indian Country Today 11/22)

Related Stories:
Yvette Roubideaux: Making progress on contract health funds (11/17)
Lisa Shellenberger: IHS leaving its patients with unpaid bills (11/9)