KU Law News
KU Law News
Sept. 23, 2008
Law student who survived cancer hopes congressional testimony will help others
Second-year law student Tracie Revis spent her summer in Washington, D.C., as the first Native American Congressional Intern from the University of Kansas. While there, she submitted written testimony to a Senate committee about her frustrating battle to obtain health coverage for cancer treatments.MORE INFORMATION
PDF of written testimony by Tracie RevisVideo of Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing at which Revis' story was shared (click on "View Webcast")
Audio of Sen. Dorgan's opening statement from hearing (MP3)
Tracie Revis ran into brick walls at Indian Health Services for months while tumors grew in her body. Now cancer-free but burdened with debt, the second-year KU Law student got a chance to tell her frustrating story to members of the U.S. Senate this summer.
Revis submitted written testimony to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for its Oversight Hearing on Access to Contract Health Services in Indian Country. She also attended the June 26 hearing, at which Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who chairs the committee, summarized her case and recognized her in the audience.
“It was a very emotional and cathartic experience,” Revis recalled. “It was very surreal to hear my story. I thought, ‘This isn't someone else's story, it’s my life. It was me who went through all of these things.’ And now I had the opportunity to share my experience with the hope of helping others in the future.”
Revis, who is Yuchi and Muscogee Creek from Tulsa, Okla., started law school at the University of Kansas in the fall of 2005 and became ill soon thereafter. She was originally diagnosed at Haskell Indian Nations University’s Indian Health Services clinic with walking pneumonia, but her symptoms persisted. A CT scan in Oklahoma revealed a large mass above her heart.
Revis withdrew from school.
'Nature of the system'
She would need a biopsy and a consultation with a thoracic surgeon. During the biopsy, the surgeon could not get a good tissue sample and opted to remove 75 percent of the tumor. Without prior authorization, the procedure wasn’t covered by Contract Health Services, the program that funds services for Native Americans outside an Indian Health Services or tribal health care facility.
On Christmas Day 2005, Revis got a definitive diagnosis: Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Revis and her doctor struggled for weeks – while her tumor continued to grow – to get an appointment with an oncologist. They faced constant roadblocks with Contract Health Services. They attempted to find a cancer facility that would treat Revis as an uninsured patient. They tried getting assistance from the State Department of Health Services.
No luck.
Finally, three months after her biopsy, Revis was approved for treatment through Contract Health Services. Unfortunately, she now had three tumors in her chest and neck, enlarged lymph nodes and an enlarged spleen and liver. Revis responded well to treatment but relapsed in November 2006.
She had chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant, then started radiation in the fall of 2007. That’s also when she returned to KU Law, determined to finish what she started. This time she’s shouldering 100 percent of the cost for her treatment, choosing not to go through IHS because of her previous struggles. The entire ordeal has left Revis with about $200,000 in debt.
“I, like so many others, was very disillusioned by the true nature of the system,” said Revis, who is 30. “Never throughout my entire experience did I feel empowered or in control of my own health.”
Waiting for change
Despite her difficult journey, Revis has excelled in law school. She is the president of the Native American Law Students Association and the student director of the Tribal Law and Government Center. This summer she became the first University of Kansas student to serve as a Native American Congressional Intern through the Morris K. Udall Foundation.
That’s how she came to be in Washington, D.C., for the Senate hearing. The committee e-mailed her to request permission to use her story after seeing accounts of it in several newspaper articles.
Revis is still waiting to gauge the full impact of the hearing. Indian health care got a $250 million injection in July from a provision tacked onto a Senate bill financing the international fight against AIDS. The Senate passed a bill in February to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act; the measure awaits action by the House.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), for whom Revis interned in Washington, encouraged her to pursue her interest in the Act. She attended several hearings and met with relevant representatives and staff members. In addition, her internship included time with the Director of Indian Health Services, the National Congress of American Indians, Reps. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and staff members at many other offices.
Revis recently received another clean scan, capping off almost a year of being cancer free. She plans to graduate in May 2010 and go to work on health care policy, possibly running for elected office in Oklahoma.
“I was amazed and outraged at how Indian people were represented in D.C.,” Revis said. “I saw some members of Congress that were really advocating and supporting legislation that was beneficial to Indian Country, and then I sat through hearings where Indian people were considered ‘special interest groups’ and therefore not worth considering how they could be impacted.
“Through all of this, I determined that I would continue to fight to give a voice to Indian people.”