In This Issue

This week, the Indian Health Service will submit a plan to Congress detailing how it will allocate its FY 2014 appropriations.  On January 17, 2014, Congress passed an appropriations bill to fund the Federal government for the remainder of Fiscal Year 2014 (FY 2014).  The law removed caps on Contract Support Costs (CSC) and created a way for the Indian Health Service (IHS) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to fully fund CSC in 2014. Given the parameters of the legislative language, the "way" to fully fund CSC is by moving money from other IHS and BIA line items into CSC.  IHS and BIA are asking Tribes to advise them on making these difficult decisions by February 14. 

Several Tribal calls on this issue have been hosted by the White House and IHS last week.  The agencies are seeking input from Tribes on funding priorities for FY 2014.   The IHS has noted that they must find between $5 and $20 million in the IHS budget in order to be able to fully fund CSC. 

Please see the memo attached here. For any additional questions please contact Caitrin Shuy, Manager of Congressional Relations at cshuy@nihb.org or (202) 507-4085.

As you may recall, the renewal of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) is typically linked to the so-called "Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR)" Fix, which is the formula governing how physicians are reimbursed by Medicare, as part of the "Medicare Extenders" legislation.   The Senate Finance Committee has already considered this program as part of their SGR Fix legislation (s. 1871). NIHB has talked to key staff in the House of Representatives who have also noted the strong support for this program in that chamber.

However, the overall bill that SDPI is linked to, the SGR Fix, is still in flux as Congress continues to find a way to pay for the measure. The current patch for the SGR Fix expires on March 31, 2014. It is vital that Indian Country continue to remind Congress on the importance of this program. Please call your member of Congress and remind them why we must have SDPI renewal by the March 31 deadline. Contact your member office and ask to speak to the health care aide and say, "My name is X and I am calling from X, and I am urging Senator/Representative X to insist that the Special Diabetes Program for Indians is part of the Medicare Extender package, which is usually attached to the SGR Fix. This program expires in September 2014 and is saving lives and taxpayer dollars."

You can view our SDPI Toolkit here. Click here to see a listing of Members of the House of Representatives who signed the 2013 SDPI support letter by IHS area. You can view the Senate signers here.

Last month the Inter-Tribal Council of the Five Civilized Tribes passed a resolution that supports Advance Appropriations for the Indian Health Service. An advance appropriation is funding that becomes available one year or more after the year of the appropriations act in which it is contained and this would greatly improve the delivery of care for IHS direct service Tribes as well as compacting Tribes. You can view the resolution here.