Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Task Force To Be Created To Investigate How IHS Doctor Was Allowed To Practice For Years Following Abuse Allegations
The Associated Press: Panel To Review Indian Health System's Treatment Of Children
The Trump administration is creating a task force to investigate how an Indian Health Service doctor was able to sexually assault children in his care. The White House announced Tuesday that the Presidential Task Force on Protecting Native American Children in the Indian Health Service System will be co-chaired by President Donald Trump's domestic policy adviser and the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma. (3/26)
The Wall Street Journal: White House Launches Investigation Of Indian Health Service Failures Over Sexual Abuse
The team of law enforcement and other government officials will examine why the IHS failed to stop the doctor, Stanley Patrick Weber, and also how better to protect Native American children under the care of the federal health agency, senior administration officials said. The committee will be co-chaired by Trent Shores, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Oklahoma, and Joe Grogan, the White House’s domestic policy council chairman, the officials said. (Frosch and Weaver, 3/26)
In other news from the administration —
The Washington Post: Puerto Rico Faces Food-Stamp Crisis As Trump Privately Vents About Federal Aid To Hurricane Maria-Battered Island
At the Casa Ismael clinic for HIV-positive men with severe health complications, the staff used to immediately change patients’ diapers after they were soiled. But last week, clinic administrator Myrna Izquierdo told the nurses that had to stop. To save money, the nonprofit clinic, which relies on its patients’ food-stamp money for funding, will ask patients to sit in diapers in which they have repeatedly urinated, sometimes for hours. The Casa Ismael clinic is short on funds in part because of cuts in food stamps that hit about 1.3 million residents of Puerto Rico this month — a new crisis for an island still struggling from the effects of Hurricane Maria in September 2017. (Stein and Dawsey, 3/25)
