Rounds says Indian Health Service needs regular independent audits

U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) on Feb. 14 sponsored legislation that would authorize an independent outside audit of the Indian Health Service (IHS), a federal agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that’s responsible for providing federal health services to American Indians and Alaska Natives. 

“IHS has a trust and treaty responsibility to provide proper health care to tribal members and it has failed in its duty,” Sen. Rounds said last week, explaining that tribal members who rely on IHS for health care services “have faced unimaginable horrors” for too many years. 

“Tribal members in South Dakota and across the Great Plains Region are in the midst of a health care crisis,” he said. “The financial, structural and administrative problems at IHS have resulted in tribal members receiving misdiagnoses, waiting too long in emergency rooms, and in some cases dying due to inadequate care.” 

The Assessment of the Indian Health Service Act of 2019, S. 498, would require the HHS Secretary to contract with a private entity to assess IHS’s health care delivery systems and financial management processes at IHS direct-care facilities.

Such an assessment, the senator said, would permit federal lawmakers to better analyze “the failures of the IHS” while enabling them to consult with the tribes to more quickly solve problems and provide reliable care.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues to move it across the finish line this Congress,” said Sen. Rounds, who originally sponsored the Independent Outside Audit of the Indian Health Service Act of 2017, S. 465, during the 115th Congress. While the bill advanced in committee, the measure never received action by the full U.S. Senate.

The newly introduced S. 498 has been referred for consideration to the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee.