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PRESS
RELEASE CRST Public Relations
8/24/04 Martha R. Garreau
Resolving
Tribal Health Care Issues One by One
Chairman
Frazier along with local department head representatives
from Tribal Health, Indian Health Services (IHS),
Youth Diabetes, and CHR Program’s came together
on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 to address the many
issues that affect the funding and progression of
those programs. “Let’s stop fighting
each other and fight together,” stated Frazier.
The group identified barriers and resolved to take
appropriate steps to increase productivity so that
the people of Cheyenne River may benefit from their
services.
The lack of dental services on Cheyenne River is
just one of many health care issues that the Chairman
has been addressing for quite some time. Tribal
Health has been working with IHS to staff quality
dentists to serve the communities on the reservation.
Currently, one dentist is on contract but mostly
attends to emergency dental care in Eagle Butte.
However, more dentists will be arriving in the near
future with the first full time dentist expected
by the end of September and another in November.
Plans to hire an additional contract dentist brings
hope to reopen a dental office in Cherry Creek.
Vern Donnell, CEO of IHS in Eagle Butte recently
visited the old dental facility to assess damages
to the building. With a few repairs and general
maintenance the building will be capable of housing
a dental clinic.
As a result of the recent hiring’s, tribal
members will not only benefit from the availability
of quality dental care but more jobs will be created
as well. In order to accommodate the increase in
dentists the dental office will soon be announcing
the need for more dental assistants. To keep the
people of Cheyenne River updated of changes in services,
schedules will be posted throughout businesses in
Eagle Butte and on the local cable channel 22.
To ensure a lasting commitment, IHS and Tribal Health
provide housing for the dentists. The Tribe recently
purchased a large mobile home unit next to the Mni
Mart in order to provide adequate accommodations.
Chairman Frazier is satisfied with the increase
in dental care and can now focus on other areas
of distress.
Third party billing is also of great concern to
the Chairman. Currently Indian Health Services in
Aberdeen does the billing for Tribal Health and
in doing so the Tribe loses money. Tribal Health
is awaiting their own primary care provider number
which will allow their billing personnel to directly
bill Medicaid, Medicare, and private insurance companies.
This will allow the money from services billed to
flow back into the Tribe. All programs that operate
under Tribal Health will be affected by this change.
Jayme Longbrake, Health Systems Coordinator for
CRST announced, “Cheyenne River will be the
first Tribe in the area to take on this task.”
Patients can also play a part in increasing profits
by simply signing a release of information form.
There are currently 229 patients that have not signed
this form. By not signing this form prevents the
billing of services which results in loss of revenue.
In no way does this violate the patient’s
right to privacy and quality health care. It is
very crucial that patients are fully aware of the
importance of this form upon initial registration.
Chairman Frazier stated that he will continue to
tackle the many grievances concerning health issues
and will strive towards quality care for the people
of Cheyenne River.
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