President Proposes 13 Percent Increase in FY 2010 Budget for I.H.S.

The proposed budget authority for the Indian Health Service (IHS) for fiscal year 2010 is $4.03 billion. This is a $453.5 million, or approximately 13 percent, increase over the IHS fiscal year 2009 budget appropriation. This proposed budget is directed at supporting and improving the provision of health care services, improving health outcomes, promoting healthy communities, addressing health disparities, and strengthening the Indian health system with additional resources for health care services.

The request includes funds necessary to maintain the current level of services provided as well as funds to expand, within current program authority, access to care and address tribal contract support costs and essential health information technology activities.

The budget request includes an increase of $167 million to cover increased costs associated with pay raises, population growth, inflation, and staffing and operating costs for new/expanded facilities.

The President’s proposal also requests an increase of $117 million in contract health service funds, which are used to purchase health care that IHS is unable to provide through its own network. A portion of the total amount will be set aside for catastrophic or high-cost cases.

The IHS budget includes an increase of $104.4 million for contract support costs to assist tribes in administrative functions necessary to successfully manage health programs they compact or contract for under the authority of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. These funds will address existing shortfalls associated with ongoing tribal contracts and compacts.

Also included in the proposed budget is an additional $16.3 million to help expand the IHS Health Information Technology (HIT) system to meet additional federal reporting requirements and provide essential HIT services to patients, providers, and communities. Increasing clinical needs have led to increased spending on HIT to ensure compliance with federal mandates, increase security, improve infrastructure, and continue development and deployment of the electronic health record in over 200 sites.

The IHS, an agency in the Department of Health and Human Service, provides a comprehensive health service delivery system for approximately 1.9 million American Indians and Alaska Natives.

IGT Installs sbX(TM) Tier One Package at Barona

International Game Technology announced that it has successfully installed the sbX(TM) Tier One Package at Barona Resort & Casino in San Diego, Calif. This is the second in a series of installations that are launching as a prelude to commercial installations anticipated in 2009.

"Everyone involved with these installations is excited to be at the leading edge with this technology," said Javier Saenz, vice president of network systems product management and marketing. "And with the recent submittal of our integrated property-wide solution to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, we are demonstrating our leadership and progress in bringing server-based gaming to market. No other manufacturer has reached this level of success with server-based initiatives."

Chuck Hickey, vice president of slot operations at Barona added, "We look to this evolution of the server-based gaming solution as another step in our continued testing partnership with IGT," said Chuck. "We hope that the operational and regulatory input we have shared with IGT is as valuable to them as the chance to be on the forefront of this long-awaited next phase of the gaming floor of the future has been to us."

Last month, IGT announced its first sbX(TM) Tier One installation at Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, Mo. Now, in partnership with Barona, IGT continues to validate the order and installation process, and also gain valuable customer feedback on the industry's first Game-to-System (G2S) game management solution.

As part of the Tier One Package, sbX(TM) Floor Manager is live on 49 machines at Barona, including 29 AVP® TrimLine machines, 10 G MLD® machines and 10 S MLD® machines, featuring IGT's patented Multi-Layer Display® technology on REELdepth(TM) games. MLD® technology allows the player to switch from 3 to 4 to 5-reel games, to video slots to poker, all on the same machine. REELdepth(TM) brings an exclusive 3-D visual experience to slots. Barona has more than 100 game themes to choose from in the IGT Game Library, which is included in the Tier One Package.

The sbX(TM) Tier One Package combines sbX(TM) Floor Manager with the power and flexibility of IGT's new AVP® machine models and access to the industry's largest G2S game library. This powerful combination revolutionizes the game theme conversion process by allowing operators to change and configure games in real time with no machine downtime - driving customer loyalty and decreasing associated operational costs.

International Game Technology (www.IGT.com) is a global company specializing in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and sales of computerized gaming machines and systems products.