Rounds Reintroduces IHS Assessment Legislation
Bill calls for HHS Secretary to undertake assessment of IHS health care delivery and financial management processes
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) today reintroduced the Assessment of the Indian Health Service Act of 2019. He previously introduced this legislation during the 115th Congress, where it advanced out of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee with bipartisan support.
“Tribal members in South Dakota and across the Great Plains Region are in the midst of a health care crisis,” said Rounds. “For far too long, tribal members who rely on Indian Health Service (IHS) for health care have faced unimaginable horrors. The financial, structural and administrative problems at IHS have resulted in tribal members receiving misdiagnoses, waiting too long in emergency rooms, and in some cases dying due to inadequate care. IHS has a trust and treaty responsibility to provide proper health care to tribal members and it has failed in its duty. An assessment will allow us to take a close look at the failures of the IHS so that we can work in close consultation with the tribes to immediately solve these problems and begin providing the reliable, adequate care our tribal members deserve. I look forward to working with my colleagues to move it across the finish line this Congress.”
Rounds’ legislation calls for the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to contract an assessment of IHS’s health care delivery systems and financial management processes at IHS direct-care facilities. Rounds first requested an assessment of IHS in 2016. He introduced legislation for an assessment of IHS in 2017. South Dakota’s tribal chairmen have shown continued support for this measure.
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