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Indian Health Service recently signed an agreement with the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma granting them $5.6 million to establish a tribal health system. With the health, safety and convenience of all Oklahoma tribal citizens at the forefront of our minds, we believe this funding is unwarranted, unnecessary and redundant.
Cherokee Nation maintains the largest tribal-run health system in the country. We provide high-quality care to citizens of any federally recognized tribe in need. Our existing health care infrastructure and array of services provided in northeast Oklahoma — particularly, in the city of Tahlequah — renders this funding to UKB a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars that will only sow confusion and undermine the quality of care for tribal citizens in Oklahoma.
Cherokee Nation, in partnership with IHS, has made significant fiscal investments to ensure that all tribal citizens within the Cherokee Nation Reservation — UKB citizens included — receive the highest quality health care for generations. People are also reading..
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Cherokee Nation operates a 469,000 square foot outpatient facility in Tahlequah that provides high-quality care to tribal citizens, UKB included. We provide extensive services to UKB citizens. The latest reports show that we provided nearly 13,000 patient care visits to UKB citizens in fiscal year 2021.
This new funding would not provide any services that are not already offered to UKB citizens by Cherokee Nation’s health system. In fact, IHS’ new funding could force providers to treat Cherokee Nation and UKB patients under two separate systems, creating a complex and cumbersome approach that undermines Cherokee Nation’s commitment to continuity of care. Ultimately, this could mean UKB patients are referred out from their trusted physicians, new red tape would be put between patients and their doctors, and it could limit a provider’s ability to serve patients.
This funding interferes with the care already successfully provided within Cherokee Nation’s health system as a stark contrast to our overall strategic plan, and in turn, is harmful to our patients. These uncertainties lead to more questions that IHS and UKB must answer. Where will UKB send its patients? Does it have contracts and vendors prepared to treat citizens in need of care? What will be UKB’s process for reviewing and approving referred care? These are not hypothetical questions without consequences; they will have real impact on the health of tribal citizens.
This news is also troubling for the citizens of Cherokee Nation and undermines national faith in the decision making ability of IHS. UKB’s new agreement with IHS inexplicably grants more funding per patient than what Cherokee Nation, many other Oklahoma tribes and most tribes currently receive per citizen. Given the finite amount of funds available through IHS, this could undercut the care available to tribal citizens across the country.
Adding insult to injury, IHS has specified that this new funding is designated solely for UKB, and they are under no obligation to provide for members of any other tribe. This decision by IHS, to grant this new allocated funding to UKB, creates confusion for patients of both the UKB and Cherokee Nation tribes. It is a risk to their health and well-being, and to the current world-class system that serves both of these tribes and ensures tribal families’ happiness, health, strength, and safety.
IHS should not waste already scarce federal funding on duplicative health care..
