A bill to implement the Federal responsibility for the care and education of the Indian people by improving the services and facilities of Federal Indian Health programs and encouraging maximum participation of Indians in such programs.
Indian Health Care Improvement Act - Declares it the national policy to provide the highest possible health status to Indians and to provide existing Indian health services with all the necessary resources to effect such policy.
Title I: Indian Health Manpower - Authorizes the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to make grants to public or nonprofit private health or educational entities, Indian tribes, or tribal organizations for the purpose of: (1) identifying and assisting Indians with a potential for health education or training; and (2) publicizing existing sources of financial aid.
Directs the Secretary to make preparatory scholarship grants to Indians who have successfully completed their high school education and have demonstrated the capability to successfully complete courses of study in health related professions. Directs the Secretary to make scholarship grants to individuals currently enrolled in some form of health school who agree to provide their professional services to Indians after completion of their training. Establishes means of recovering such grants if the scholarship recipient fails to comply with such agreement.
Entitles scholarship recipients to employment in the Indian Health Service Extern Programs during any nonacademic period of the year. Permits the Secretary to provide continuing education allowances to health professionals in the Service to permit them to take leave of their duty stations for professional consultation and refresher training courses.
Title II: Health Services - Authorizes the Secretary to expend specified sums for purposes of eliminating backlogged and unmet Indian health needs in the areas of patient care, field health, dental care, mental health, treatment and control of alcoholism, and maintenance and repair.
Title III: Health Facilities - Authorizes the Secretary to expend specified sums to eliminate inadequate, outdated, and otherwise unsatisfactory service hospitals, health centers, health stations, and other facilities. Authorizes the Secretary to expend specified sums to supply unmet needs for safe water and sanitary waste disposal facilities in existing and new Indian homes and communities, giving preference to Indian enterprises in awarding contracts for such construction and renovation.
Title IV: Access to Health Services - Allows the Secretary to enter into agreements with the appropriate State agency for the purpose of reimbursing such agency for health care provided in Service facilities to Indians who are beneficiaries of the Medicaid provisions of the Social Security Act.
Title V: Health Services for Urban Indians - Directs the Secretary to enter into contracts with urban Indian organizations to assist such organizations in the establishment and administration of programs designed to make health services more accessible to the urban Indian population.
Title VI: American Indian School of Medicine - Directs the Secretary to provide for the establishment, operation, and funding of an American Indian School of Medicine.
Title VII: Miscellaneous - Requires the Secretary to make annual reports to the President and Congress on progress made in effecting the purposes of this Act. Authorizes the Secretary, in carrying out these provisions, to enter into leases with Indian tribes for periods not in excess of 20 years.
Referred to House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs.
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