A Report from National Indian Health Board
20th Annual Consumer Conference
St. Paul, Minnesota
September 29 - October 2, 2003

KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Quanah Crossland Stamps, Department of Health and Human Services

Major Points:
The Department of HHS currently has business assistance centers on Indian reserves across the nation. Stamps encouraged a push for Health Assistance Centers either based on the business model or working within the current assistance centers. She recognized that there is a need for a national network of American Indians/Alaska Native patient health information centers.

IHS Director Dr. Charles Grim addresses
the conference (Photo courtesy of NIHB)

There is a need to focus on community-based organizations while working for healthcare improvements on reserves. Organizations already in the community can expand their roles to include health information or to support new initiatives.

Stamps spent some time discussing the initiatives that have come from HHS since Mr. Tommy Thompson was appointed to oversee the agency. The first initiative resulted from Mr. Thompson's merging of a number of departments in order to allow offices to work together on the coordination of American Indian/Alaska Native programs, as well as delivery of services. She pointed out that for all people to have equal access to healthcare they need to focus on:

• The health of the community. Chronic problems that exist, i.e., diabetes
• The social structure of the community. How the community interacts with one another and works together.
• Education/Economics. The educational and economic conditions in the community; including unemployment levels and worker wages.

The department's goal is to increase partnerships with American Indian/Alaska Native communities. They want to eliminate the barriers that prevent access to HHS programs and associate funding. As part of this movement, the department conducted a Grants Access Study that inventoried HHS programs on health, society, and economics to see how many grants were available to tribes. They found the following:

• Of 315 programs, Native Americans are eligible for 125, less than 39 percent.
• Of the 125 programs Native Americans are eligible for, they are only accessing 85.

Why this discrepancy? For the fiscal funding year beginning in 2004, HHS is going to examine whether there are any regulatory or policy barriers or internal HHS challenges that are creating barriers for Native Americans who apply for grants through HHS.

Ten HHS offices are currently examining the evolution of tribal – federal government relations to see how they can function better together. The department wants to show how to work with and support Native American grass roots interaction with HHS employees.

Native American groups have asked HHS to make the following changes to their funding initiatives:

1. Advanced notice of Requests for Proposals so that Native communities can include them in budget considerations.
2. An individual technician to liaise directly with the Native community while they are planning and running the program.
3. Increased preparation time for formal consultation with the HHS department.