SENATE INDIAN AFFAIRS COMMITTEE PLANS HEARING ON INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE INVESTIGATION

- 09/27/10

WASHINGTON D.C. -

The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee will conduct a hearing Tuesday, September 28, on the findings of its investigation into substandard health services and mismanagement in the Indian Health Service’s (IHS) Aberdeen Area. The hearing will take place in Room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, and will begin at 10:00 AM.

Chairman Dorgan launched the formal committee investigation on June 24, 2010, after years of hearing complaints and reports of serious problems -- including negligent patient care, frequent health care service diversions, mismanagement, and inadequate employee accountability -- at IHS facilities from employees and tribal communities in the Aberdeen Area.

At the hearing, IHS will be asked to respond to a number of the preliminary findings of the committee’s on-going investigation. So far, that investigation has included a review of over 100,000 pages of documents, site visits and interviews with tribal members, tribal officials, and employees of the IHS.


Details follow:

WHO:    U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman; Vice Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY) and other members of the committee.
       
Witnesses:

PANEL #1: Dr. Yvette Roubideaux, Director, Indian Health Service; Charlene Red Thunder, Director, Aberdeen Area, Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services; Gerald Roy; Deputy Inspector General, Investigations, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services;

PANEL #2: Ron His Horse is Thunder, Executive Director, Great Plains Tribal Chairmen’s Health Board;

WHAT:    Oversight hearing entitled “In Critical Condition: The Urgent Need to Reform Indian Health Service’s Aberdeen Area.”

WHEN:    10:00 AM, Tuesday, September 28, 2010

WHERE:    628 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.

WHY:     To receive responses, for the first time, from the IHS to some of the preliminary findings of the committee’s on-going investigation of Indian Health Service

Contact: Barry Piatt or Jennifer Bronson
Contact Phone: 202-224-2551

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