The Rosebud (S.D.) Tribal Council has approved a motion to ban the top five officials from the Rosebud Comprehensive Health Care Facility after they failed to confer with the council over the contracting of a controversial staffing agency, according to the Rapid City Journal.
Indian Health Services contracted Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Tribal Emergency Medicine to staff emergency medical positions at IHS hospitals in Pine Ridge and Rosebud, S.D., as well as Winnebago, Neb., and Fort Yates, N.D.
John Shufeldt, MD, the CEO and CMO of Tribal Emergency Medicine, is the former founder and CEO of urgent-care chain NextCare, which was forced to pay $10 million in 2012 for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid. The tribal council opposed the decision by IHS to contract such an embattled firm without their consultation.
"The Rosebud Sioux Tribe feels that IHS is already misspending and misusing our federal funds and to bring Tribal Emergency Medicine to Rosebud IHS is unacceptable," said a summary of the motion written by the Rosebud Tribal Council.
No officials from the hospitals have yet to be removed from the reservation.