IHS Announces FY2026 Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund Threshold

Regs.gov: Indian Health Service

Published March 11th, 2026

Detected March 14th, 2026

Summary

The Indian Health Service (IHS) announced the Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund (CHEF) threshold for Fiscal Year 2026. The threshold has been set at $19,630, an increase from the previous year, calculated based on medical care expenditure inflation.

View original document View source feed page

What changed

The Indian Health Service (IHS) has issued a notice announcing the Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund (CHEF) threshold for Fiscal Year 2026. The threshold is set at $19,630, reflecting a 2.8% increase from the FY2025 threshold, calculated based on the percentage increase in the medical care expenditure category of the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers from December 2023 to December 2024.

This notice serves to inform relevant parties of the updated financial threshold for CHEF requests. While this is an informational update, healthcare providers seeking to utilize the CHEF for extraordinary medical costs associated with disasters or catastrophic illnesses should be aware of this new threshold for FY2026. No specific compliance actions are mandated by this notice beyond awareness of the updated figure.

Source document (simplified)

Content

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

This notice announces the Catastrophic Health Emergency Fund (CHEF) threshold established at $19,630 for Fiscal Year 2026
CHEF requests.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

The Indian Health Service (IHS) administers the CHEF pursuant to section 202 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (IHCIA).
The purpose of the CHEF is to meet the extraordinary medical costs associated with the treatment of victims of disasters or
catastrophic illnesses who are within the responsibility of the Service. The CHEF was established by section 202 of the IHCIA,
Public Law 94-437 (25 U.S.C. 1621a). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Public Law 111-148, as amended by the
Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, Public Law 111-152 (collectively, the Affordable Care Act or “the ACA”),
reauthorized the IHCIA and amended the CHEF, directing the Secretary to promulgate regulations governing the administration
of the CHEF. The final CHEF regulation (2024-19421 (89 FR 70527)) was published on August 30, 2024, in the
Federal Register
, establishing the threshold cost of $19,000 for Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. See 42 CFR 136.503(a). The threshold amount in subsequent
years is calculated from the threshold amount of the previous year, and increased by the percentage increase in the medical
care expenditure category of the Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (United States city average) for the 12-month
period ending with December of the previous year. See 42 CFR 136.503(b). The Consumer Price Index is released monthly. For
FY 2026, “December of the previous year” is December 2024, because December 2025 is part of FY 2026. The “12-month period
ending with December of the previous year” is therefore December 2023 to December 2024. The medical care expenditure category
for this 12-month period was 2.8%, thereby increasing the threshold from $19,095 for FY 2025 to $19,630 for FY 2026 CHEF requests.
See https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/11/26/2025-21314/catastrophic-health-emergency-fund-chef-threshold for the FY 2025 CHEF Threshold Notice.