- Details
- By Indigenous Pact
Indigenous PACT is a Native American woman owned company with a bold mission – bringing health equity to Indian Country in a single generation. We are a healthcare consulting company with a focus on three outcomes: Healthy Citizens, Sustainable Economies, and Healing Spaces. We work with Tribal communities to understand their healthcare delivery needs, create a shared strategic plan of action, and initiate solutions.
Health disparities among American Indians remain at an all-time high. American Indians have the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality, diabetes, heart disease, poisoning, suicide, as well as pneumonia and influenza. Overall, Natives have a life expectancy less than the U.S. all-races population. In order to address these problems, Tribal health leaders need more tools.
Tribes have come to Indigenous PACT for help enabling new health programs for their citizens to address the most pressing public health issues, for example, the opioid epidemic with opioid treatment programs, while also untangling the various levels of state and federal health care laws and creating a system to tackle IHS billing.
One important tool Indigenous PACT uses to help our partners is our expertise in financial forecasting. Tribes have the unique responsibility of making smart investments into health infrastructure projects to improve the wellbeing of the whole community. Those investments require reliable financial forecasts for Tribal leadership. It is important to evaluate the risk of building new programs, or expansion of existing operations. To help leadership make the best possible decisions for the community, we help evaluate historical revenue streams, and develop trustworthy new revenue generation forecasts.
Imagine this scenario. An aging 20-year-old 21,000 square foot health clinic had reached its capacity to serve the community. The health department needed to find a path to minimize external funding of the health clinic by creating a business plan that generated stable revenues to support a loan repayment plan for a new building. Historical revenue and third-party billing data was scattered across many manual processes, making it difficult to compile supporting revenue forecasts.
In partnership with the Tribal planning department, Indigenous PACT created a comprehensive financial forecast and feasibility study for a new $25 million 50,000 square foot health center. The strategies used to create that forecast included extensive historical document review, development of historical revenue for seven service lines, creation of three revenue forecast scenarios to reach breakeven, and the evaluation of patient and expanded service population growth. Indigenous PACT was able to provide that client with the financial forecast, plan for loan repayment, service population modeling, key performance indicators, and the impact analysis of Tribal member insurance enrollment. The Tribe was able to use all of this data to analyze the need for a new Tribal health clinic and make a decision they were confident in.
To learn more, visit indigenouspact.com.
Help us tell the stories that could save Native languages and food traditions
At a critical moment for Indian Country, Native News Online is embarking on our most ambitious reporting project yet: "Cultivating Culture," a three-year investigation into two forces shaping Native community survival—food sovereignty and language revitalization.
The devastating impact of COVID-19 accelerated the loss of Native elders and with them, irreplaceable cultural knowledge. Yet across tribal communities, innovative leaders are fighting back, reclaiming traditional food systems and breathing new life into Native languages. These aren't just cultural preservation efforts—they're powerful pathways to community health, healing, and resilience.
Our dedicated reporting team will spend three years documenting these stories through on-the-ground reporting in 18 tribal communities, producing over 200 in-depth stories, 18 podcast episodes, and multimedia content that amplifies Indigenous voices. We'll show policymakers, funders, and allies how cultural restoration directly impacts physical and mental wellness while celebrating successful models of sovereignty and self-determination.
This isn't corporate media parachuting into Indian Country for a quick story. This is sustained, relationship-based journalism by Native reporters who understand these communities. It's "Warrior Journalism"—fearless reporting that serves the 5.5 million readers who depend on us for news that mainstream media often ignores.
We need your help right now. While we've secured partial funding, we're still $450,000 short of our three-year budget. Our immediate goal is $25,000 this month to keep this critical work moving forward—funding reporter salaries, travel to remote communities, photography, and the deep reporting these stories deserve.
Every dollar directly supports Indigenous journalists telling Indigenous stories. Whether it's $5 or $50, your contribution ensures these vital narratives of resilience, innovation, and hope don't disappear into silence.
The stakes couldn't be higher. Native languages are being lost at an alarming rate. Food insecurity plagues many tribal communities. But solutions are emerging, and these stories need to be told.
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Levi Rickert (Potawatomi), Editor & Publisher