Indian Health Service (IHS)
- The Contract Health Services program within IHS is chronically underfunded by Congressional appropriators.
- Hospitals often assume that an Indian patient is categorically covered by IHS. However, IHS always states that CHS is neither an insurance program nor an entitlement. It is a program that is funded by Congress through the regular appropriation process.
- IHS uses an elaborate system of medical priorities and bureaucratic determinations to slow the expenditure of their limited funding.
- The fiscal intermediary for CHS payments is BlueCrossBlue Shield of New Mexico (BCBSNM). They attest to timely payment turnarounds and remind us that they do not deny payments, but IHS does.
The root issue is inadequate federal funding, but the problem is diffuse in that the population served, the affected hospitals, the affected states and the affected Senators are all in the minority.
