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Join NIHB for a Capitol Hill briefing on the Special Diabetes Program for Indians – Thursday, December 5, 2013
On December 5, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) will host a Special Diabetes Program Indians (SDPI) briefing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C from 10:00 – 11:15 AM in 2218 Rayburn House Office Building. The SDPI is making a tremendous difference in the health of American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs), who are burdened disproportionately with type 2 diabetes at a rate of 2.8 times the national average.
As SDPI is set to expire in September 2014, the program must be renewed this year to ensure that critical programs around the country can continue. This is your opportunity to hear directly from SDPI grant program directors and other SDPI stakeholders on specifically how SDPI funding is changing the diabetes landscape for AI/ANs and how SDPI is saving lives, lowering medical expenditures and demonstrating a real return on the federal investment. To view the SDPI briefing invitation, CLICK HERE (PDF).
To RSVP for the SDPI briefing, please contact Jeremy Marshall, NIHB Senior Legislative Associate, at jmarshall@nihb.org or at (202) 507-4078.
Posted - November 27, 2013
Thanksgiving overshadowed by sequestration in Indian Country
This Thanksgiving, as with every year since 1970, Native Americans and supporters of indigenous peoples throughout Canada, Mexico and the U.S. will march on Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts to protest the turkey jubilee and reappropriate the holiday as National Day of Mourning (NDOM)...
Read full article at mainstreet.com
Posted - November 1, 2013
76 Senators Sign Support Letter for the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
76 Senators have signed the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) Senate support letter this year, translating into over 75% of the U.S. Senate supporting this critical program. This is an increase from last year’s total of 72 Senate signatures. To view the SDPI Senate support letter (with signatures), CLICK HERE (PDF)
Posted - October 30, 2013
NIHB Board Secretary Sally Smith Receives Demientieff Award
October 24, 2013, Fairbanks, Alaska – Governor Sean Parnell today presented the 2013 Shirley Demientieff Award to H. Sally Smith at the Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) Convention in Fairbanks. The award, presented each year at AFN, is given by the governor for advocacy on behalf of Alaska Native women and children.
To read more, click here.
Posted - October 28, 2013
On October 14, 2013, NIHB, in partnership with the United South and Eastern Tribes and 22 other Tribes and Tribal Organizations, sent a letter to President Obama, asking the Administration to withdraw the proposal to cap Contract Support Costs for Tribal contracts and promptly resolve all past claims.
Click here to view the letter (PDF).
Posted - October 23, 2013
336 House Members Sign On in Support of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
336 U.S. House of Representatives Members have signed the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) support letter, translating into over 75% of House Members signing on in support of SDPI. This is an increase from last year’s total of 268 House Member signatures. Please note that the House SDPI Support Letter contains 335 signatures. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX-32) provided his own support letter.
To view the House SDPI Support Letter (with House Member signatures), CLICK HERE (PDF).
Please note that the House SDPI support letter contains 335 actual signatures. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX-32) provided his own support letter, bringing the total to 336. While a final copy of the U.S. Senate SDPI support letter has not been provided by the Senate Diabetes Caucus at this time, we can confirm that 76 Senators have signed the Senate SDPI support letter. The Senate SDPI support letter (with signatures) will be posted on the NIHB homepage once its released.
For more information, contact Jeremy Marshall (NIHB Senior Legislative Associate) at jmarshall@nihb.org or at (202) 507-4078. Stay tuned to the SDPI Resource Center website at www.nihb.org/sdpi for regular updates on the SDPI renewal campaign and how you can become involved.
Posted - October 22, 2013
Senator Begich Introduces Legislative Bill to Streamline the Definition of Indian in the Affordable Care Act
On October 16, 2013, Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) with Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI), and Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) introduced a bill (S.1575) that would streamline the Definition of Indian in the Affordable Care Act. This is an important first step in ensuring that all American Indians and Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) receive the benefits and protections intended for them in the Affordable Care Act (ACA)...
Posted - October 4, 2013
Indian Health Among Tribal Programs That Could Re-Open Under Mini Continuing Resolution
Yesterday (October 3, 2013), the House of Representatives approved for House Floor consideration several measures which would end the government shutdown for select agencies. Among these was a resolution offered by Chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Mike Simpson (R-ID) to continue funding for several programs critical to Indian Country. The “American Indian and Alaska Native, Health, Education, and Safety Act” (H.J.Res.80), would fund the Indian Health Service (IHS), The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) until December 15, 2013. This bill would provide funding for these programs at FY 2013 funding levels, and still maintain sequestration cuts. In addition to this bill there were also measures approved for consideration that would fund nutrition assistance for low-income women and children (H.J.Res.75) Impact Aid, (H.J.Res.83) and Head Start (H.J.Res.84)...
Posted - October 4, 2013
Government shutdown's hit magnified for tribes; 300 in Crow Tribe furloughed
Billing's Gazette
CROW AGENCY — American Indian tribes have more than access to national parks on the line with the government shutdown, as federal funding has been cut off for crucial services including foster care payments, nutrition programs and financial assistance for the needy.
For the 13,000 members of southeast Montana's Crow Tribe, the budget impasse had immediate and far-reaching effects: Tribal leaders furloughed more than 300 workers Wednesday, citing the shutdown and earlier federal budget cuts...
Read full article:
http://billingsgazette.com/news/local/government-shutdown-s-hit-magnified-for-
tribes-in-crow-tribe/article_28d79f72-667c-5eb7-b01d-3bd6d59610d5.html#ixzz2gn2JbT5N
Posted - October 3, 2013
Native American communities hit hard by government shutdown
By Kevin Taylor and Jenni MonetNo roads link the tiny town of Fort Yukon, Alaska, to the rest of the United States, but that doesn't mean the federal government shutdown won't reach the nearly 600 inhabitants, mostly members of the Alaska Native population, who still fish and hunt for subsistence.
Ed Alexander, 36, is second chief of the Gwichyaa Zhee band of Gwich'in Indians who reside there, and he spent most of Tuesday online trying to determine what exactly the shutdown's impact will be. The timing is terrible for Alaska Native villages, he said, hurting students who have not yet received scholarship money they need for faraway universities and creating unemployment — the government is a core employer — just as people are preparing for an interior Alaska winter...
Read full article at:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/10/3/indian-country-hithardbygovernmentshutdown.html
Posted - October 1, 2013
What you need to know about the Government shutdown and Indian Health
The U.S. government has officially shutdown as of 12a.m. on October 1 due to Congress’s failure to pass a continuing resolution, or “CR,” to fund the government. Late last night, the House of Representatives sent back a version of the CR to the Senate which delayed the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act and eliminated health premium subsidies for members of Congress, their staff and the president, his cabinet and political appointees. However, the Senate immediately rejected this proposal. The House then voted to go into a “conference” with the Senate to work out a final CR. However, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused noting, “We will not go to conference with a gun to our head." Both chambers are in session today, but a path forward is unclear.
What does this mean for Indian health?...
Posted - September 10, 2013
White House Trying to Cheat Tribes on Health Costs
Rob CapricciosoSeptember 09, 2013 | Indian Country Today Media Network
In June 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter that the federal government must pay for the full contract support costs (CSC) incurred by tribes while providing healthcare and other governmental services for their tribal citizens through Indian Self-Determination Act contract agreements.
In opposition to that ruling, the White House shared with Congress late this summer a continuing resolution budget proposal that would allow the federal government to forgo paying millions of dollars worth of CSC to tribes...
Posted - August 8, 2013
$47 Million in CMS EHR Incentive Payments to Indian Country
Providers and hospitals signed up with the NIHB RECWASHINGTON, DC—August 7, 2013—According to a recent report by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the National Indian Health Board’s (NIHB) Regional Extension Center contributed to producing $47 million in CMS Electronic Health Records (EHR) incentive payments to Indian Country...
Posted - August 6, 2013
IHS Director Yvette Roubideaux Writes to Tribal Leaders on the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
In June, Indian Health Service Director Yvette Roubideaux sent a “Dear Tribal Leader” letter with an update on the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI). In April of this year, the Tribal Leaders Diabetes Committee (TLDC) recommended that the national funding distribution for the SDPI remain the same for FY 2014. IHS Director Roubideaux concurred with this recommendation provided by the TLDC.
The Letter also provides an update on efforts to address the $3 million sequestration cut to SDPI funding in FY 2013. IHS has worked hard to find ways within current SDPI funding levels to address the $3 million reduction and has announced that SDPI grant amounts will not be reduced due to sequestration in FY 2013. SDPI programs established in Indian Country will continue to receive the necessary resources and funding to fight diabetes in Tribal communities.
To view a copy of the “Dear Tribal Leader” letter, CLICK HERE
July 23, 2013 - New York Times Editorial
Abandoned in Indian Country
It’s an old American story: malign policies hatched in Washington leading to pain and death in Indian country. It was true in the 19th century. It is true now, at a time when Congress, heedless of its solemn treaty obligations to Indian tribes, is allowing the across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester to threaten the health, safety and education of Indians across the nation...
Published: July 17, 2013
New York Times
Letter to the Editor: Cuts to Indian Health
Re “Broken Promises,” by Byron L. Dorgan (Op-Ed, July 11):
The National Indian Health Board, an advocacy group serving the 566 federally recognized tribes, calls on Congress to acknowledge the harm that health care cuts are having on tribal communities and to exempt the Indian Health Service, a federal agency, from further reductions...
July 12, 2013 - New York Times
Pain on the Reservation
Photo by Kevin Moloney for The New York Times
At Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the poorest parts of the United States, the budget cuts known as sequestration have slashed millions of federal dollars in funding.
By ANNIE LOWREY
New York Times
PINE RIDGE, S.D. — The Red Cloud-Bissonette family needs a new trailer. Frank, who is disabled, and Norma, his wife, are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who live on the sprawling grasslands of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Despite their constant efforts to patch the seams of one of their trailers that was hauled here in 1988, rot and mold continue to climb up the walls.
The family has punched a hole in the ceiling for a chimney for their wood stove, a necessity given the harshness of the winters but a fire hazard in the dry climate...
View Other Sequestration Stories
Posted: July 11, 2013
WE WILL SOON BE ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS for the 2013 3RD ANNUAL NATIVE YOUTH SUMMIT
Suicide Prevention Story created by: Corina Williams (Village of Togiak) and Evrocenia Wassillie (Village of Togiak)
View all the 2012 Native Youth Summit videos
The Youth Summit will take place at the NIHB 30th Annual Consumer Conference (ACC) in Traverse City Michigan on August 23-26, 2013. This year’s Summit focuses on creating Digital stories related to Diabetes and Cancer in your community. We encourage all Native Youth to apply and tell us why you would like to be a part of this year’s Summit.
To find out more information on the 2013 3rd Annual NIHB Native Youth Summit, please click here and see Digital Stories produced at last year’s Summit.
Native Health Summit
The 2013 National Indian Health Board’s Native Youth Summit of the 30th Annual Consumer Conference will bring together youth throughout Indian Country to focus on health care issues in their communities. This year we will offer full workshops on two critical health care issues in Indian Country: Cancer and Diabetes. With support from the Mayo Clinic’s Spirit of Eagles Program and the American Diabetes Association, these two issues will be the focus of Digital Story-telling workshops and productions. The Digital Stories will be featured at the end of the track during a Native Youth Film Festival held on Monday, August 26th following the Annual Consumer Conference Opening Reception!
For further questions regarding the Summit please call 202-507-4081.
Posted: July 11, 2013
Help Fight Diabetes in Indian Country: Urge Your Senators and Representatives to Sign on the Special Diabetes Program for Indians Support Letter
This week, the House Diabetes Caucus released a Dear Colleague letter to support the renewal of the Special Diabetes Program and the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDP/SDPI). Both of these programs expire at the end of next fiscal year - September 30, 2014. You can read the Senate letter here and the House letter here.
SDPI is a critical investment to prevent and treat Type 2 diabetes in the American Indian/Alaska Native Communities. This program is saving lives and saving taxpayer dollars. If this program is not renewed, Tribes across Indian Country will not only lose funds but will continue to suffer from Type 2 diabetes at alarming rates.
HOUSE SDP Dear Colleague and Joint Letter (PDF)
SENATE Special Diabetes Program Dear Colleague and Joint Letter (PDF)
Please contact your representatives and urge them to sign onto this letter. The deadline to sign on is July 31, 2013.
Last year's letter had signatures from 268 House members and 72 Senators and was instrumental in the renewal of SDPI. Please help us make this year's letter an even bigger a success!
Posted: July 11, 2013
New York Times Op-ed: Broken Promises by Bryon Dorgan
Broken Promises
By BYRON L. DORGAN
WASHINGTON — WHEN I retired in 2011 after serving 30 years in Congress, there was one set of issues I knew I could not leave behind. I donated $1 million of unused campaign funds to create the Center for Native American Youth at the Aspen Institute, because our country has left a trail of broken promises to American Indians.
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, I once toured a school near an Indian reservation where I encountered a teacher who told me that when she asked a young Indian student what she wanted for Christmas, she said she wanted the electricity turned on in her house so she could study at night...
Posted: July 8, 2013
2012 National Indian Health Board Native Youth Summit Digital Story Films
In 2012 the Annual Consumer Conference in Denver, Colorado featured the 2nd Annual Native Youth Summit. This track brought together Native Youth from around Indian Country to develop digital stories focused on health and wellness in their communities. These stories created by the youth over a two day Digital Story workshop dealt with topics ranging from Obesity to Suicide to Stress and Cultural Identity.
Posted: July 5, 2013
National Indian Health Board and National Congress of American Indians Propose Candidates for United States Surgeon General
Washington, DC – Today, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) was joined by the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) requesting that the administration appoint one of the four candidates it proposed for Surgeon General of the United States. The candidates include foremost leaders in the field of Indian Health: Lori Arviso-Alvord, MD (Navajo), Donald Warne, MD, MPH (Oglala Lakota), Charles Grim, DDS (Cherokee) and Rear Admiral Craig Vanderwagon. The NIHB announced its support for the four candidates at the close of the National Indian Health Board’s National Annual Tribal Public Health Summit June 19, which was held on the Seminole Nation, in Florida...
Read More/ View Candidates (PDF)
View the NIHB and NCAI Letter to the President (PDF)
Posted: June 27, 2013
Department of Health and Human Services Offers Partial Solution Definition of Indian
On Wednesday, June 26, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a final rule that provides a hardship waiver that will prevent American Indians/Alaska Natives (AI/ANs) from receiving a tax penalty if they fail to retain minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
The National Indian Health Board (NIHB) applauds HHS’s decision to move forward with this waiver and appreciates the Secretary responding to the comments of the Tribes and Tribal advocates to address definition of Indian issue. Yet, there are many other benefits included in the ACA specific to AI/ANs that need to be addressed in order for all AI/ANs to be afforded the opportunities provided for in the Act.
Read NIHB’s full statement (PDF)
Posted: June 27, 2013
“S.H.O.W.” SDPI Grantee Site Visit Toolkit: Connect with Your Member of Congress Today!
DOWNLOAD S.H.O.W. SDPI Toolkit (PDF)
On June 19th, the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) launched the Special Diabetes Program for Indians (SDPI) renewal campaign. As SDPI will expire on September 30th, 2014, NIHB asks you to help Congress understand the impact of SDPI in your communities by inviting your Member of Congress to visit your SDPI program in August during the Congressional recess. NIHB has created the “Schedule, Host, Organize, and Witness” (S.H.O.W.) SDPI Grantee Site Visit Toolkit, a step-by-step guide on how to host a site visit with your Member of Congress...Read More (PDF)