The Tribal Consortium, represented by Clear Health Pass Holdings, joined Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services policy leadership and Novitas Solutions — the Medicare Administrative Contractor authoring the Local Coverage Determination for skin substitute coverage — for a formal working session on tribal sovereign framework and advanced wound care policy.

The session was convened by Rhonda Martinez of CMS and hosted on the agency’s official ZoomGov platform. Novitas Solutions was represented by Gail Atnip and Kim Robinson. The CMS Division of Tribal Affairs was represented by its then-Director, Ms. Kitty Marx, and by CAPT Susan Karol, MD. Clear Health Pass presented on behalf of Blue Lake Rancheria and the broader Tribal Consortium then taking shape.

The agenda addressed three matters: the special legal domicile of federally recognized tribes and the implications of that domicile for federal healthcare program design; the role of Section 16 and Section 17 tribal economic development corporations as sovereign partners in regulated markets; and the economic development obligations the federal government carries for both on-reservation and off-reservation tribal enterprise.

Ms. Marx led a substantive discussion of CMS Tribal Consortium policy and emphasized the importance of tribes as partners — not vendors, not stakeholders, but co-sovereigns — in the design of federal healthcare programs. CHP, in turn, articulated the case for advanced wound care as a tribal economic development pathway that serves both tribal members and the broader Medicare beneficiary population.

“That was a learning moment for all of us, in the best sense. Tribal sovereignty doesn’t narrow federal partnership — it expands it. When CMS and Novitas treat a meeting with tribal representatives as a genuine sovereign-to-sovereign session, the policy that comes out of it is better. We left more confident in the federal commitment to that kind of partnership, and we’re grateful to Ms. Marx, CAPT Karol, and the Novitas team for the way the session was conducted.”

— John Michael Cataldi, CEO, Clear Health Pass Holdings

What this means for tribal health and tribal nations

A wound-care provider in Indian Country benefits when the people writing coverage policy have actually sat down with tribal representatives and understood the clinical reality they’re serving. The June 24 session set an early precedent: tribal sovereign engagement with CMS and its contractors can be substantive, structured, and productive. Both sides can build on that.

About Clear Health Pass™  

Clear Health Pass™ is a bioinformatics, bio-surveillance. Clear Health Pass™ is a minority/veteran-operated organization in partnership as tribal is a portfolio partner of The Native American Venture Fund (NAVF). Clear Health Pass Holdings, LLC, DBA Clear Health Pass™ is an appointed “Tribal Agent” for The Tribal Consortium, a federal, Section 17 Tribal Corporation, whose tribal sovereignty’s authority is derived from The Indian Reorganization Act Of 1934 (IRA), 25 U.S.C. § 477. If you would like to know more information and investment opportunities with Clear Health Pass™ you can request information via this link

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