Alaska native tribal health consortium: innovative health care model for reformers.

• Author: Kaminis, Markos
• Position: HEALTH & MEDICINE

In a year when America is evaluating its national health care system, the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium offers a unique and successful model that other domestic and foreign groups are seeking to emulate. Groups from all over the world, in fact, have come to Alaska to meet with Consortium leaders and learn from the ANTHC health care model. This Alaska organization is held in high regard across and beyond our borders.

ANTHC

The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is a non-profit health organization owned and managed by Alaska Native tribal governments. It was organized in 1997 to provide statewide health care and other services for Alaska Natives. With such a complex task at hand, the group has been composed of targeted operating divisions that have set forth to handle specific tasks. On the whole, however, their purpose is simple and one and the same, to take care of Alaska Natives.

The ANTHC is composed of four major subdivisions, including the Alaska Native Medical Center, the Division of Environmental Health and Engineering, the Division of Community Health Services and the Consortium of Business Support Services.

IMPROVING CONDITIONS

ANTHC strives to provide Alaska Natives with the highest quality medical care, extending, via modern technology, to the farthest most reaches of Alaska. At the same time, the group works to improve the general living conditions of Alaskans in the most distant and primitive of locales. The group's efforts extend well beyond just physical health care services, incorporating psychological and counseling aid to help people overcome problems such as addiction. The group even provides legal assistance, financial help and other advocacy programs. ANTHC also trains Alaskans in the technical know-how needed for the provision of these sustaining and progressive health and welfare programs.

STANDARDS RAISED

The sole purpose of the organization is to aid the state's Alaska Native and American Indian population, and it is effective in doing so in various ways. One such way is through its research of important health trends affecting the indigenous population statewide or segments of it. The intelligence gained from such study allows the group to target important treatments and to provide preventative education. The group has also made great strides in the identification and treatment of ailments in hard to reach locales through the use...