The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hosted a field hearing in Rapid City, South Dakota, on June 17, 2016, to look into the Indian Health Service. Photo from Sen. Mike Rounds / Facebook
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) formally requested a system-wide audit of the Indian Health Service on Wednesday. Rounds, a first-term member of Congress, asked the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services to focus on the financial aspects of the IHS. He said tribes, especially those in the Great Plains Area, have been seeking answers to key questions for years to no avail. "In the Great Plains Area, particularly in South Dakota, this issue has reached a crisis stage. People are literally dying waiting for a solution," Rounds wrote in a letter to Inspector General Daniel R. Levinson. The letter cites concerns in three main areas: budget allocation and distribution, facilities and asset management and transparency. It asks about staff vacancies, construction of new facilities, discrepancies in spending, maintenance budgets and other issues. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association, which represents tribes in South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, has supported an audit of the IHS. An April 15 resolution called for the establishment of a funding formula "based on the true needs" of each region, one of the issues raised by Rounds. The IHS is consulting tribes and urban Indian organizations in the Great Plains about potential changes in the region. A telephone session was held June 30 and the first in-person meeting will take place next week, on July 15, in Rapid City, South Dakota. It will be followed by a second telephone session on August 10 and another in-person meeting on August 30. "Specific topics may include, but are not limited to, the geographic location of the IHS Great Plains Area Office, centralization or further decentralization of Area Office services, staffing, budget, local involvement, transparency and oversight, partnerships, accountability, monitoring, and how the Area Office can support the service units," Mary Smith, the leader of the IHS, wrote in a June 29 letter to tribal leaders. Federal Register Notice:
Notice of Tribal Consultation and Urban Confer Sessions on the State of the Great Plains Area Indian Health Service (June 3, 2016) Government Accountability Office Report:
INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE: Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Patient Wait Times (April 29, 2016) Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Report:
In Critical Condition: The urgent need to reform the Indian Health Service’s Aberdeen Area (December 2010)
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