The Indian Health Services (IHS) is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services. This federal program provides healthcare to federally-recognized tribes in Alaska and the contiguous US, or Alaska Native and Native American tribes. In 2021, the IHS awarded $32.7 million to two programs.
In August 2021, IHS awarded $25 million to 14 tribes and tribal organizations, and in October 2021 it awarded another $7.7 million to expand the IHS Community Health Aid Program (CHAP). Both programs are integral to making sure Native Americans and Alaska Native tribe members have access to quality healthcare services, regardless of their location around the country.
The $25 million is being awarded to support the Small Ambulatory Program that will culminate in the construction, expansion, or modernization of small ambulatory health care centers. The IHS Small Ambulatory Program works toward making sure that these tribes have access to outpatient services. Since its inception in 2001, the program has funded over 60 projects involving upgrading facilities, expanding facilities, and offering new services for a total of $99 million.
The Small Ambulatory Program falls under the Division of Facilities and Planning Construction. This program works to facilitate engineering, planning, and construction support through developing relationships among tribes, service unit engineers, and related professionals.
The $7.7 million awarded to CHAP will go toward providing primary, dental, and behavioral healthcare to rural and remote Alaska Native and Native American communities. This awarded will be distributed among the following seven tribes, each receiving $669,000 over two years.
-Wichita and Affiliated Tribes
-Indian Health Council, Inc.
-California Rural Indian Health Board, Inc.
-Three Affiliated Tribes
-Southern Plains Tribal Health Board
-Navajo Nation, Division of Behavioral and Mental Health Services
-Kickapoo Tribal Health Center
This money is going to be used to determine the appropriateness of the CHAP workforce model for the existing tribal health care system and to determine whether the model is appropriate for the tribes' primary, oral, and behavioral healthcare needs.
This $7.7 million grant award will also provide $1 million over two years to the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, the Fort Belknap Indian Community, and the Lummi Nation. This money will be used to support the CHAP planning and implementation program, which will fund establishing CHAPs that are uniquely tailored to meet community needs.
The national CHAP expansion will be similar to the expansion of the Alaska model. This model relied on building up the existing workforce with mid-level paraprofessionals, relying on culturally competent providers, and offering workforce development opportunities for staff.
IHS is important in that it performs a number of activities that facilitate healthcare for these Native Americans and Alaska Natives through CHAP. IHS designed the CHAP Tribal Assessment and Planning and Tribal Planning and Implementation programs to get feedback across the healthcare system on how to use Fiscal Year 2020 funding.
Through IHS, CHAP offers training and education to tribal community, dental, and behavioral health providers so that they can offer access to quality health care, disease prevention services, and health promotion. The program initially served rural areas in Alaska, but now has been expanded to include the 48 contiguous states.
Finally, IHS also created the CHAP Tribal Advisory Group in 2018, which was founded to make sure that the agency hears concerns and questions from tribes, tribal organizations, and urban Native American and Alaska Native communities across the US. This advisory heard community concerns and answered questions through events such as listening sessions, planning meetings, and focus groups.
These two projects are a part of the organization’s mission to increase health care access for Alaska Native and Native American communities. For more information on these projects and other IHS news, please visit https://www.ihs.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/.
