Alaska’s main Native healthcare organization is set to receive $400 million from the federal government for unpaid expenses after the U.S. Department of Justice settled a lawsuit the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium filed in 2021.
The Department of Justice announced the settlement on Tuesday. ANTHC’s lawsuit claimed that for seven years, the federal government did not fully compensate the organization for administrative costs.
“This settlement marks an important step toward ensuring that resources accurately reflect the true cost of operating a complex Tribal health system and advancing self-determination in healthcare,” said Natasha Singh, president and CEO of the consortium, in a statement on Tuesday.
ANTHC provides health services in clinics throughout the state and at the Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage. The organization also runs rural infrastructure projects in villages, including improving water and sewer systems.
Under ANTHC’s agreement with the federal government under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the consortium is responsible for providing healthcare that the federal government would otherwise provide through agencies like the Indian Health Service.
The consortium said in its court complaint the government failed to reimburse administrative costs for healthcare services between 2014 and 2022, with the exception of one year.
Singh said the details of the settlement are still being finalized, but it helps the consortium to expand their services for Alaska Native people.
Tribal attorney Lloyd Miller said this and other cases follow a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision that the federal government owed money to the San Carlos Apache and Northern Arapaho tribes in Arizona and Wyoming. He said that since then, many tribes have filed or reactivated litigation with the Indian Health Service.
“When the court held that those two tribes had been underpaid, the court was saying that every tribe in the United States that has a contract with the Indian Health Service has been underpaid,” said Lloyd, who handled that and two other similar cases. “To be sure, a significant amount of money is owed to tribes.”
