Here’s where to go for info about feds taking over health care from Nooksack Tribe

The federal Indian Health Service is taking over health care programs operated by the Nooksack Indian Tribe and will discuss what that means during two informational meetings on Wednesday.

The meetings will be 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the Hampton Inn Bellingham-Aiport, 3985 Bennett Drive.

Indian Health Service staff from the Portland division will be there to provide information about prescriptions, Medicaid providers, transfer of care, medical records and where to go for health care, according to an agency news release.

The feds are reassuming health care because of an ongoing legal battle over the tribe’s decision to remove 289 people from the Nooksack membership rolls because, the tribal council said, those people didn’t have strong enough blood ties to the tribe and had been erroneously enrolled.

The move will allow those kicked out of the tribe to once again get health care.

The transition should be completed by June 13, the agency said.

More information is online at ihs.gov/portland.

This story was originally published May 26, 2017 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Here’s where to go for info about feds taking over health care from Nooksack Tribe."