Indian Health Service

The Indian Health Service, as part of the Public Health Service, provides a comprehensive health services delivery system for American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Part of Department of Health and Human Services

Official site

Civilian staff, August 2026: 12,211; −9.4% in a year
Rules made final this year: 2
Organizations that lobbied it: 119; 2019 to 2026

Where its power comes from

An agency can act only where a law lets it. These are the laws its rules cite, where its rules live, and the bills that would change it.

Laws it carries out

The U.S. Code sections its rules of the last six years cite as their authority, most cited first.

25 U.S.C. 131 rule part
Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund25 U.S.C. 1621a · 1 rule part
Hospitals and health facilities transferred to Public Health Service; restriction on closing hospitals42 U.S.C. 2001 · 1 rule part
Regulations42 U.S.C. 2003 · 1 rule part

Its rulebook

Where the rules it wrote these six years sit in the Code of Federal Regulations.

Title 42: Public Health1 part · 2 rule documents

Bills that would change it

Bills this Congress that name it, the most recently moved first. A bill that names an agency is not a law.

S 1055: Indian Health Service Emergency Claims Parity ActLatest action Oct 5Passed first chamber
HR 8658: Indian Health Service Emergency Claims Parity ActLatest action Sep 15Passed first chamber

Track record

What it made final, the cases it brought, and where Congress moved to undo its work.

Latest final rules

The newest rules it made final.

Removal of Obsolete Portion of Regulation Relating to Care and Treatment of Ineligible IndividualsTakes effect Dec 7Oct 8
Removal of Obsolete/Suspended RegulationsTakes effect Dec 7Oct 8

See every agency’s rules

Who runs it

Its leaders

Mark CruzDirector of the Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, for the term of four years

Who pays to be heard

American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, Inc.$19.5M on reports naming it
American Dental Association$17M on reports naming it
Alzheimer's Association$15.5M on reports naming it

See 20 of 119 organizations

Its leaders

The people the Senate last confirmed to its offices, one record per office. A confirmation date is not proof someone still serves.

Mark CruzDirector of the Indian Health Service, Department of Health and Human Services, for the term of four years · confirmed Aug 7

Who tries to sway it

Who names it on federal lobbying reports, 2019 to 2026, and who used to work there. Naming an agency is the filer’s account of where work was aimed, not a record of a meeting.