October 2014 Blogs

Affordable Care Act Exemption for Individuals Eligible for Services from an IHS Provider

This week I sent a letter to Tribes reporting that Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell made an announcement at last month’s Secretary’s Tribal Advisory Committee meeting that individuals eligible to receive health care from an Indian Health Service (IHS), tribal, or urban Indian health care provider will be able to claim an exemption from the shared responsibility payment through the tax filing process starting with the 2014 tax year. Please see letter [PDF - 23KB] and diagram [PDF - 80KB] for further information. We also posted a press release last week.

We are grateful to Secretary Burwell and the Treasury Department for helping make this important Tribal recommendation a reality!

Contract Support Costs Past Claims Settlement Update

IHS continues to make progress on settlement of past claims for Contract Support Costs (CSC). Here is a chart showing progress as of October 3, 2014, compared to baseline data in November 2013. Of note, we have settled 641 CSC past claims to date, for a value of $633 million. For Tribes with questions on the status of their past CSC claims, please contact your IHS Area Director.

Click on the thumbnails for larger images