The Cherokee Nation will soon be receiving a $29.6 million check from Indian Health Services after negotiations ended in a settlement last week, tribe officials said Wednesday.
Indian Health Services underpaid the tribe $31 million between 2005 and 2013, a tribe news release states. Indian Health Services is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"This is really a blessing for the Cherokee Nation and all of Indian Country that these contracts are going to be fully recognized and paid," said Bill John Baker, tribe principal chief.
Indian Health Services is required to pay a percentage of indirect costs to support health care in the tribe, according to the release. These funds support costs such as Internet technology and human resources for the tribe's health care program.
The 1975 Indian Self-Determination Act gave American Indian tribes the authority to operate their own programs such as health care under a contract with the federal government, according to documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
"Nobody could imagine a military contractor signing a contract and the government saying, 'We are going to pay you this part and not pay you the rest of it,'" Baker said. "They were not filling their obligation of what the contract really said and after asking nicely and going through the chain of command we finally had to sue."
The Cherokee Nation filed a lawsuit in 2006, said Julie Hubbard, tribe spokesman.
Baker said the tribe has used its own resources in the past to make up costs from underpayments from the federal government. He said the underpayments also made it difficult to budget.
"Part of this settlement is that they agree to pay contract costs from this day forward," Baker said. "It is something that we can count on. Something that we can budget. We won't get into this situation again after this lawsuit."
Cherokee Businesses has previously approved spending $100 million on a new surgical hospital along with two new clinics and the renovation of two other clinics. Cherokee Businesses is the business arm of the tribe.
Baker said the settlement will help the tribe purchase equipment for the new facilities.
"That $29.6 million couldn't have come at a better time," Baker said. "The equipment costs for these facilities is quite expensive."
Operating room equipment along with mammogram machines are examples of equipment that the settlement could purchase for the facilities, Baker said.
The Cherokee Nation offers care at no charge to those federally recognized as members of the tribe. Tribe facilities located in Oklahoma draw tribe members from bordering states. More than 10,000 Cherokees live in Arkansas, according to the Cherokee Nation Registration Department.
Metro on 07/18/2014