Senate Advances Padilla Amendment to Improve Urban Indian Health Infrastructure
Fix included in bipartisan infrastructure package will allow UIOs to spend appropriated funding on construction and infrastructure projects
Note: The following is an excerpt of a press release from Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today (August 2, 2021), the U.S. Senate voted to amend the bipartisan infrastructure legislation to include U.S. Senators Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and James Lankford’s (R-Okla.) Urban Indian Health Providers Facilities Improvement Act to pave the way for increased investment in the renovation and construction of urban Indian health facilities. U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i) are cosponsors of the amendment.
The Indian Health System is made up of the Indian Health Service (IHS), Tribal health programs, and urban Indian organizations (UIOs). UIOs provide culturally competent care for the over 70 percent of American Indians and Alaska Natives who live in urban centers, many in low-income, medically underserved areas.
86 percent of UIOs report needing to make facilities and infrastructure upgrades, while 74 percent of UIOs report unmet need for new construction to better serve patients. However, under an existing obsolete provision of law, UIOs are prevented from using the money allocated to them by Congress on these critical infrastructure projects. This amendment changes the law to allow UIOs to spend appropriated funding on construction and renovation projects to improve the safety and quality of care provided to urban Indian patients. These needs include, but are not limited to the construction of urgent care facilities and infectious disease areas, capacity expansion projects, ventilation system improvements, and upgrades to telehealth and electronic health records systems.
“Tribal communities face grave and unjust disparities in access to many kinds of infrastructure, but the disparities in access to health care and health infrastructure are especially stark,” said Senator Padilla. “In California, Urban Indian Organizations are a lifeline to Native Americans living in urban areas, yet they are prohibited from using Indian Health Service funding for facilities, maintenance, equipment, and other necessary infrastructure upgrades. I’m glad to see the Senate take action on my bipartisan amendment today to remove this unjust burden on UIOs as part of the infrastructure package, because no infrastructure package would be complete without robust improvements to tribal infrastructure. Passage of this amendment will ensure that UIOs are able to improve the quality of the culturally competent care that they provide to urban Indians.”
“Oklahoma has the second-largest Urban Indian patient population and is proudly served in both Tulsa and Oklahoma City clinics. We should continue to improve health care access for our Urban Indian population and broaden the flexibility for Urban Indian Organizations’ use of facilities renovation dollars, in addition to those for accreditation, to meet patient needs,” said Senator Lankford.
The Urban Indian Health Providers Facilities Improvement Act will have a critical impact on California, which has one of the largest populations of American Indians in the United States and is home to 723,225 American Indians of sole and mixed race. Unlike American Indian populations in other states, American Indians in California are not linked by a dominant tribal affiliation, nor are they concentrated on reservations. In fact, nearly 90 percent of the American Indian population in California resides in urban areas. Additionally, between 60,000 and 70,000 out-of-state Native Americans settled in Los Angeles and San Francisco – these cities have two of the largest urban Native American populations in the United States.
Thumbnail photo courtesy Oklahoma City Indian Clinic
