INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE DIRECTOR RESIGNS
Departure opens door for Biden to select new leader
The director of the Indian Health Service has said that he will resign, giving President-elect Joe Biden a chance to install new leadership at an agency that has drawn intense criticism for its failures to provide adequate care to tribal communities both before and during the pandemic.
The director, Rear Adm. Michael Weahkee, a member of the Zuni Tribe who has been in the job since April after leading the agency on an interim basis since 2017, said his resignation would be effective Jan. 20.
“It has been a sincere honor to have been entrusted to serve in this role,” he said in the letter, noting that his departure was typical during presidential transitions. “I believe the IHS is more capable now than ever before of fulfilling our vision of healthy communities and quality health care systems through strong partnerships and culturally responsive practices.”
Weahkee has overseen a health care agency that critics say has been routinely neglected by Congress and successive administrations. It is riddled with vacancies across its hospital system and has left the Native American communities it served with some of the worst health outcomes in the country.
The Indian Health Service consists of 26 hospitals, 56 health centers and 32 health stations and provides care to 2.2 million members of the nation’s tribal communities. The hospitals, scattered across a dozen regions in the country, range in size from four beds to 133.
The service has long faced shortages of funding and supplies, but the pandemic brought those disparities to the fore, contributing to the disproportionately high infection and death rates among Native Americans.
Abigail Echo-Hawk, director of the Urban Indian Health Institute, said that the Biden administration has the chance to appoint someone who could address those weaknesses. Native American voters, Echo-Hawk said, helped swing key states in favor of Biden.
“The rest of the country needs to know that the Indian Health Service has been failing us and previous administrations have failed us,” EchoHawk said. “The Biden administration has the opportunity to bring in someone who is given the support needed to make innovative changes.”