This is part three of a four part sponsored series with the Anchorage Daily News. For the average Alaskan, 1997 was the year that brought the most visible change to Tribal health care. That’s when the Indian Health Service finished construction on the $170 million Alaska Native Medical Center in midtown Anchorage. Behind the scenes, something much bigger was taking shape. The Alaska Tribal Health Compact Since the 1970s, Alaska’s Tribes had been contracting with the federal government, Read Part 2, to manage an ...

With help from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium and Spruce Island Development Corporation, the City of Ouzinkie, a community just north of Kodiak, secured nearly $2 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant Program and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grant (CDBG). CDBG grants are provided to help local governments tackle serious challenges facing their communities. In Ouzinkie’s case, the funding will help replace aging ...

This is part two of a four part sponsored series with the Anchorage Daily News. Fish strips hung in the smokehouse. Flies and mosquitoes buzzed around the outhouses. Pompan stepped off the boat in a three-piece suit and wing tip shoes. “I don’t know where he thought he was going, but he dressed for D.C., and he came to Indian Country,” recalled Paul Sherry. Sherry, who would later go on to be the first CEO of Alaska’s statewide Tribal health consortium, was ...

Many of us know or have heard a story about the impacts that non-immunized Alaskans, specifically children, have on others. National Immunization Awareness Month is an annual observance held to provide information on the benefits of immunization and the risks of foregoing important recommended immunizations. The State Health Improvement Plan, Healthy Alaskans 2020, works with local and statewide partners to raise awareness about the importance of immunization as an effective means of infectious disease prevention across the state. The associated ...

Patient Housing at ANMC has been open for a year and a half now, and our people are enjoying the additional accommodations on campus. Guest satisfaction for Patient Housing remains extremely positive, with our overall customer satisfaction at 89 percent based on surveys returned by our guests in June 2018. “We constantly receive positive feedback from our guests staying at Patient Housing at ANMC,” said Athena Midvag, General Manager for Patient Housing at ANMC. “Our guests love being connected to ...

Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price met with Tribal leaders from across the state, hosted by ANTHC. The visit marked Secretary Price’s first trip to Alaska and offered the opportunity to learn more about our Tribal health system, partnership with the Indian Health Service and health care challenges facing Alaska Native people. These vary throughout the state, but with every region represented, Secretary Price heard about the importance of federal funding for health care and aging ...