Health care for Shareholders and Descendants outside the Cook Inlet region
Question: I’m a Shareholder living in Washington state. CIRI provides health care services to its Shareholders and other Alaska Native and American Indian people living in the CIRI region. Why doesn’t CIRI make health care services available to Shareholders and Descendants outside the CIRI region?
Answer: In 1975, Congress passed the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA). The act, at its core, is about self-determination and empowering Tribes to provide services and programs directly to their people. Alaska Native corporations were included in the definition of “eligible Tribes” within ISDEAA to ensure Alaska Native people were not left behind when it comes to accessing various federal programs and services.
In the early 1980s, the CIRI Board of Directors recognized the need to address housing, social services and health care within the Cook Inlet region. CIRI delegates its Tribal authority under ISDEAA to three designated Tribal organizations (DTOs)—Cook Inlet Housing Authority, Cook Inlet Tribal Council and Southcentral Foundation (SCF)—providing each the ability to access federal funding to administer their services. Under federal law and regulation, each organization has limitations on who it may serve and where it may serve (Service Unit). Generally, CIRI DTOs may only provide services within the CIRI region.
Shareholders, Descendants and other Alaska Native/American Indian (AN/AI) people who reside within the CIRI region are eligible to receive care at SCF, an Alaska Native-owned health provider that serves approximately 70,000 customer-owners. SCF operates within its federally designated Anchorage Service Unit, which includes Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley. SCF may not provide services outside the Anchorage Service Unit since CIRI’s federal authority only extends to its own Service Unit.
SCF’s Alaska Native Health Resource Advocate Program was developed to meet the information and referral needs of Alaska Native people living outside Alaska, or those within Alaska who do not reside in SCF’s Anchorage Service Unit. The program assists Alaska Native people and their family members by identifying, locating and connecting them with appropriate and available health, social, educational, legal, employment, disability, treatment, housing, health insurance, and other related programs and/or services. For information, visit the SCF website or call (866) 575-6757.
