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TAHLEQUAH, OK - The Indian Health Service has released more than $3 million in funding to the Oklahoma area as part of a $10 million effort to improve Indian Health Care. Oklahoma received more than 30 percent of the funds because it is currently the lowest funded area in the nation for Indian health care.

"We appreciate that this $10 million was distributed based on need", said Mim Dixon, the executive director of the Cherokee Nation’s health division. "Even though less than $200,000 will come directly to the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, every bit we get goes directly to patient care."

Claremore Indian Hospital will get more than $500,000 in additional funding. W.W. Hastings Hospital in Tahlequah will receive more than $460,000.

"Unfortunately, this is not a recurring funding formula", said Dixon. "We need to make sure that next year this money is again distributed based on need."

Oklahoma tribes unanimously support the new funding formula, and hope that it can be applied to other areas like contract health, a program which pays for specialized treatments the IHS facilities can’t provide. "For contract health services, we get a little more than $7 million for 100,000 people", Dixon said. "We don’t have any money at all for cancer treatment."

Oklahoma has approximately 22 percent of the total Indian population in the United States, but Oklahoma tribes receive health funding at the rate of $856 per patient per year, the lowest per capita funding of any area. The average IHS area is funded at $1351 per patient.

According to an IHS formula, the Oklahoma area would need more than $86 million a year just to be brought up to the IHS national average. That average would still just fund 60 percent of the health care needs, according to the same formula.

"Right now, we’re not able to pay to set broken bones", Dixon said. "Our care givers are providing quality services, but their pool of resources is so small. They can’t do everything that is needed."

"These are precious people", said Chad Smith, Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation. "It’s vital that they receive the quality of health care they deserve."