Three Native health developments deserve attention this weekend, as workforce, prevention and federal policy keep moving across Indian Country. October is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a good time for Native women to…
Traditional healing Medicaid reimbursement now reaches Maine and Utah, which join four other states and give states with pending requests six approved models to study. CMS Approved Two New Section 1115 Waivers CMS approved Utah’s Section 1115 demonstration on…
Indian Country can grow its own behavioral health workforce, and new research shows how. Indigenous Peer Support Specialists Are a Rising Native Health Workforce On September 3, 2026, a peer-reviewed study in Frontiers in Public Health by Tassy Parker,…
Two recently published research papers provide concrete evidence that dedicated pathways must be carved into Tribal facility staffing serving Our Relatives, and that clinicians need a healthy ecosystem to stay. Academic medical center partnerships can help ease the Indian…
The Community Health Aide Program expansion gives Tribal health leaders a federally backed path to grow a local Native health workforce of mid-level behavioral, community, and dental health professionals working alongside licensed providers in Indian Country. What the $2.3…
The Navajo Nation’s new three-year public health nursing agreement puts clinicians back in rural communities, and we hope the next award will put certified Navajo-owned firms in that same role. What the Navajo Nation Signed in August 2026 On…
A new federal investment is putting physician training directly inside the rural and tribal communities that need it most. A New Investment in Rural and Tribal Residency Training On September 4, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human…
The Indian Health Service has handed full ownership of the Alaska Native Medical Center to the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, closing a chapter Native leaders have pursued for decades. A Historic Handoff in Anchorage The transfer became official…
A national nursing shortage can deepen the Tribal healthcare staffing shortage because rural and remote facilities compete for many of the same clinicians as larger health systems, while Indian Country already carries substantial vacancies. The response should include stronger…
A Labor Day note This Labor Day, I find myself thinking about the people behind every healthcare encounter—the work that happens before a clinician ever walks through the door, and the care that follows once they do. At Ellsworth,…
