KVIG Informative

Nevada’s Tribal Health Authority Council now has officers, draft bylaws and early survey results that rank behavioral health among Tribal communities’ top concerns. Here is what the council is, what it has found and what it plans to bring to the 2027 Legislature.

The Nevada Legislature created the council in 2025 through Senate Bill 312, and the law now sits in NRS 233A.410 through 233A.450. It gives the health directors of Tribally operated clinics a formal seat in state health policy. The council advises the Nevada Department of Native American Affairs, the governor’s office and the state Department of Human Services on Native health.

Voting members are the directors of Tribally operated health facilities in Nevada whose Tribes choose to take part. The department counts 14 such facilities, and its Oct. 15, 2026, meeting notice said eight had formally committed to the council. Nonvoting members include a representative of the Indian Health Service office that oversees Nevada, along with liaisons from state health agencies. Urban Native health organizations may attend and give input but do not vote, according to the council’s Oct. 1 meeting summary.

Leadership At its Oct. 1 meeting, the council elected Jon Pishion, health director of the Fallon Tribal Health Center, as chair. It elected Fergus Laughridge of the Fort McDermitt Paiute-Shoshone Tribe’s wellness center as vice chair. The department hired Kaitlynne Romero, an enrolled member of the Tlingit Nation, as the council’s coordinator in 2026. Romero reported that she drafted the bylaws with a deputy attorney general and consulted the Oregon Health Authority along the way.

What the survey shows The council’s Tribal Community Health Survey has drawn responses from five of the eight participating Tribal communities, according to the Oct. 1 summary. Those responses ranked diabetes, heart disease, behavioral health, obesity and high blood pressure as the top five health priorities. Respondents listed transportation and distance, access to specialty care, behavioral health services, emergency care and elder services as the main barriers.

Behavioral health appears on both lists, as a health priority and as a service that is hard to reach. The council set a firm deadline for the remaining surveys so the results can shape its strategic plan.

Bills for 2027 The council’s meeting notice says it is expected to start at least two bill draft requests each legislative session. One is already in progress. It would set out how Nevada reinvests the money it saves when the federal government pays the full cost of Medicaid services that Native patients receive at Indian Health Service and Tribal clinics. Laughridge asked for a status report on that request at the Oct. 1 meeting, and it appeared on the Oct. 15 agenda.

Other items on the council’s list touch mental health directly. Dr. Art Martinez, a commissioner of the Department of Native American Affairs, asked for an update on Nevada’s work toward a Medicaid waiver to cover traditional healing. He also suggested comparing Nevada’s services with Tribal health programs in other states. At the same meeting, a Nevada Health Authority staff member reported that the state had received $2 million in federal Rural Health Transformation money for children’s behavioral health grants and provider recruitment, with a request for applications expected in late October.

The council’s proposed schedule sets meetings on the third Thursday of each month at 1:30 p.m., including Nov. 19 and Dec. 17. The Indian Health Service has also scheduled a joint Tribal consultation and urban confer session in Reno on Dec. 1, 2026, which council members want to approach with a shared position. Meetings are public and held online, and the department posts agendas and summaries on its website. Those documents will show whether behavioral health makes it from a survey ranking into a bill before the Legislature convenes in February 2027.