PRESS RELEASE: NCUIH Vice President to Testify at House Natural Resources Legislative Hearing on FTCA Bill for UIOs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Contact: Meredith Raimondi, 202-932-6615, mraimondi@ncuih.org

WASHINGTON, DC (July 20, 2020) – On July 22, Robyn Sunday-Allen, NCUIH Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, will testify before the House Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States. Ms. Sunday-Allen will be testifying on Tuesday, July 22 at 2 PM in support of H.R. 6535, the Coverage for Urban Indian Health Providers Act. H.R. 6535 would extend Federal Tort Claims Act coverage to urban Indian organizations (UIOs).

“Oklahoma City Indian Clinic has been operating on the front lines of this crisis with limited resources. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on liability insurance for our providers. With parity in FTCA, we would put every cent back into services which will allow us to fulfill our mission of providing excellent health care to American Indians. Increasing access to quality health care and preventive wellness services and producing positive health outcomes for urban American Indians living in central Oklahoma is the business we are in,” said Robyn Sunday- Allen, CEO of Oklahoma City Indian Clinic, and NCUIH Vice President.

Passage of H.R. 6535 would ensure that UIOs achieve parity with the rest of the IHS/Tribal health providers/urban Indian organizations system (I/T/U system). Currently, UIOs are the only part of the I/T/U system who do not receive FTCA coverage. This act, if passed, would save individual UIOs up to $250,000 a year on medical malpractice insurance, money that could be used to hire additional providers, provide additional programs, and to respond to COVID-19 and future public health emergencies.

The Senate held a hearing on the companion bill (S. 3650) on July 1, 2020.  At the hearing, Indian Health Service (IHS) Director RADM Weahkee endorsed the bill on behalf of IHS.

FTCA coverage for UIOs currently has bipartisan support in the House and Senate, Executive Branch, and from the Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup.

The link to watch the livestream of the hearing can be found here.

• NCUIH Testimony
• S. 3650 / H.R. 6535 One Pager
• Press Release: U.S. Senators Tina Smith and James Lankford Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Expand Health Care Resources for Urban Indian Health Organizations Amid Pandemic (May 8, 2020)
• NCUIH Press Release: Gallego, Mullin Introduce FTCA Bill to Reduce Burdens for Urban Indian Organizations (April 21, 2020)
• Press Release: Reps. Gallego, Mullin Introduce Bill Boosting Resources for Urban Indian Health Organizations (April 20, 2020)
• Inclusion of FTCA for UIOs in IHS FY 2021 budget (p. CJ-18 and CJ- 288)
• Discussion of FTCA in newly confirmed IHS Director RADM Weahkee’s past testimony (p. 14)