Indian Health Care Improvement Act
Indian Health Care Improvement Act is Passed!!!After ten long years of tenacious work by every member of Indian Country, American Indians and Alaska Natives can finally claim victory with the historic passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) with the Indian Health Care Improvement Act included in the bill. On March 22, 2010, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA) was officially passed and cleared for White House signature after House Democrats passed the health care reform bill by a 219-212 vote. President Barack Obama signed the PPACA into law on March 23, 2010, placing in effect health care legislation that American Indians and Alaska Natives have been requesting from Congress for the past ten years.
The IHCIA was originally enacted in 1976 by Congress to address the deplorable health conditions in Indian Country and provides the key legal authority for the provision of health care to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) people. Over the past decade, tribes have worked endlessly to reauthorize the IHCIA in order to expand, improve, and modernize the health delivery and services in tribal communities. In recent months, the House and the Senate pledged to support the IHCIA by including its provisions within the overall health care reform legislation. The Obama administration reaffirmed that support by clearly and unequivocally calling for the permanent reauthorization of IHCIA in the White Houses outline for health care reform. President Obama made the following statement on the Act's inclusion in health care reform legislation:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2010
Earlier today, I signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health insurance reform bill passed by Congress. In addition to reducing our deficit, making health care affordable for tens of millions of Americans, and enacting some of the toughest insurance reforms in history, this bill also permanently reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which was first approved by Congress in 1976. As a Senator, I co-sponsored this Act back in 2007 because I believe it is unacceptable that Native American communities still face gaping health care disparities. Our responsibility to provide health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives derives from the nation-to-nation relationship between the federal and tribal governments. And today, with this bill, we have taken a critical step in fulfilling that responsibility by modernizing the Indian health care system and improving access to health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Office of the Press Secretary
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 23, 2010
Earlier today, I signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the health insurance reform bill passed by Congress. In addition to reducing our deficit, making health care affordable for tens of millions of Americans, and enacting some of the toughest insurance reforms in history, this bill also permanently reauthorizes the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, which was first approved by Congress in 1976. As a Senator, I co-sponsored this Act back in 2007 because I believe it is unacceptable that Native American communities still face gaping health care disparities. Our responsibility to provide health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives derives from the nation-to-nation relationship between the federal and tribal governments. And today, with this bill, we have taken a critical step in fulfilling that responsibility by modernizing the Indian health care system and improving access to health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Thanks to the relentless efforts of the National Steering Committee (NSC) for the Reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, IHCIA is now the law of the land. This includes several significant gains for urban Indian health programs including:
- The ability of urban Indian health programs to purchase health benefits for their employees under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program
- Exemption for urban Indian health providers from licensing, registration, and certain other fees for health employees.
- Expansion of facilities renovations programs to allow urban Indian health programs to access funding through the Office Urban Indian Health for facilities construction, renovation, or expansion of facilities in pursuit of accreditation.
- Access to the Federal Sources of Supply for urban Indian health programs
- Requirement for IHS/HHS to confer with urban Indian organizations on proposed policy changes before implementation.
- An exemption of American Indians and Alaska Natives from individual penalties and cost sharing
- Indian health provider protections
- Express Lane entity designation for urban Indian health providers for Medicaid and CHIP.
The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA) and Chairman Byron Dorgan worked hard to pass the IHCIA, and Senator Dorgan has been a true champion for the bill and supporter of Urban Indian Health. The amount of work that was done to reauthorize this critical legislation is immense; NCUIH has included below some of the most recent documents pertaining to the bill. For more dated information, please visit the Knowledge Resource Center by clicking here.
Indian Health Care Improvement Act and Health Care Reform Briefing
Review of Indian Specific Provisions in Health Care Reform Bills Other Than the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Senate bill S.1790, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) Amendments
Senator Al Franken (D-MN) Amendments
