Native patients aren’t liable for medical bills the Indian Health Service is supposed to pay. But federal law doesn’t stop the debt collectors.

Promises of federal funding remain just that – promises – for smaller tribes for whom the money is inaccessible because of bureaucratic and financial hurdles.

The House Subcommittee on Indigenous Peoples of the United States holds a legislative hearing on H.R.5549, the Indian Health Service Advance Appropriations Act.