The Indian Health Service (IHS) Office of Direct Service and Contracting Tribes (ODSCT) and the Office of Resource Access and Partnerships (ORAP) is accepting cooperative agreement applications for the National Indian Health Outreach and Education (NIHOE) III—Health Reform funding opportunity that includes outreach and education activities on the following: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub. L. 111-148, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Pub. L. 111-152, collectively known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA), as amended. This program is authorized under: The Snyder Act, codified at 25 U.S.C. 13, and the Transfer Act, codified at 42 U.S.C. 2001(a). This program is described in the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance under 93.933.

Background
The NIHOE III-Health Reform program carries out health program objectives in the American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) community in the interest of improving the quality of and access to health care for all 566 Federally-recognized Tribes including Tribal governments operating their own health care delivery systems through self-determination contracts and compacts with the IHS and Tribes that continue to receive health care directly from the IHS. This program addresses health policy and health program issues and disseminates educational information to all AI/AN Tribes and villages. These Health Reform awards require that public forums be held at Tribal educational consumer conferences to disseminate changes and updates on the latest health care information. These awards also require that regional and national meetings be coordinated for information dissemination as well as for the inclusion of planning and technical assistance and health care recommendations on behalf of participating Tribes to ultimately inform IHS and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) based on Tribal input through a broad based consumer network.