by Guest Author | Feb 26, 2026 | Data, Reports
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy has released its analysis of Indiana’s physician assistant workforce, offering insights into who these professionals are and where they practice.
The report paints a picture of a young, predominately female workforce, with most PAs holding advanced degrees and planning to continue in their current roles. These professionals work across diverse healthcare settings, from emergency departments to specialty clinics, and play a vital role in patient care throughout the state.
However, the data also reveal a challenge: geographic maldistribution. While urban communities tend to benefit from strong PA presence, some rural areas struggle with limited access or no PAs at all. This unevenness could affect healthcare access for Indiana residents.
The findings provide valuable context for understanding the strengths and gaps in the Indiana PA workforce. Read the full report below.
by Guest Author | Feb 26, 2026 | Data, Reports
Indiana’s physician assistant (PA) workforce reflects a young, growing profession with more than 2,400 actively practicing PAs serving communities across the state. These professionals work primarily in hospitals and specialty clinics, with surgical subspecialties, emergency medicine, and family practice as the most common areas of focus. The workforce skews younger and predominately female, with most PAs having completed their education within Indiana.
Telehealth has emerged as an important service delivery method, with nearly half of PAs now offering remote care options. While PAs serve diverse patient populations, geographic distribution remains uneven. Urban counties benefit from robust PA presence, while many rural areas face significant gaps in coverage. More than 20 counties report no practicing PAs at all.
See the full PA workforce snapshot at the end of this post. Instructions for using it are below.
How to Use This Workforce Data Snapshot
This new workforce snapshot draws on the 2024 PA Data Report and provides an overview of PAs in Indiana based on data collected during the 2024 license renewal period.
Key Information Includes
- Total actively practicing professionals: the number of individuals licensed and practicing in Indiana
- Specialties: the areas of focus these professionals reported
- Primary practice setting: the environments in which these professionals work
- Services provided: the most common services these professionals offer to patients
- Populations served: the groups these professionals report working with most frequently
- Where professionals obtained their education: the geographic location where these professionals completed their qualifying degrees or training
These data can be used to understand the composition, distribution, and characteristics of Indiana’s PA workforce. They can inform workforce planning, policy decisions, and strategies to address service gaps across the state.
The workforce snapshot also includes a map illustrating the geographic distribution of all PAs across Indiana’s 92 counties, according to data collected during the 2024 license renewal cycle.
How to Read the Map
Counties are color-coded based on the ratio of the total population per one professional full-time equivalent (FTE). This measure indicates how many people each professional serves in a given county.
- Darker blue counties have fewer people per PA, indicating greater workforce availability.
- Lighter blue counties have more people per PA, indicating lower workforce availability.
- Gray counties have zero PAs.
View the full PA workforce snapshot below.
by Guest Author | Feb 11, 2026 | Data
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy has released its latest workforce snapshots covering Indiana’s behavioral health and human services (BHHS) workforce. The workforce is made up of 10,460 actively practicing professions as of 2024 license renewal data. Of those, 9,677 licensed professionals (excluding associates) and 783 are associate-level practitioners.
Snapshots by Profession and Number of Professionals
How to Use These BHHS Workforce Data Snapshots
These new snapshots provide an overview of BHHS professions in Indiana based on data collected during the 2024 license renewal period. Each BHHS profession has its own snapshot. Additionally, there are snapshots for BHHS professionals excluding associate-level licenses and BHHS associates only. All snapshots include the same highlighted information but specific to the group covered.
Key Information Includes
- Total actively practicing professionals: the number of individuals licensed and practicing in Indiana
- Specialties: the areas of focus these professionals reported
- Primary practice setting: the environments in which these professionals work
- Services provided: the most common services these professionals offer
- Populations served: the groups these professionals report working with most frequently
- Where professionals obtained their education: the geographic location where these professionals completed their qualifying degrees or training
These data can be used to understand the composition, distribution, and characteristics of Indiana’s BHHS workforce. They can inform workforce planning, policy decisions, and strategies to address service gaps across the state.
Check out the full snapshot for all BHHS professionals, excluding associates, below.
How to Read the Geographic Distribution Map
In addition to the workforce snapshots, the Bowen Center produced a map illustrating the geographic distribution of all BHHS professionals across all of Indiana’s 92 counties, according to data collected during the 2024 license renewal cycle.
Counties are color-coded based on the ratio of population to full-time equivalent (FTE) professionals. This measure indicates how many people each professional serves in a given county.
- Darker green counties have fewer people per BHHS professional, indicating greater workforce availability.
- Lighter green counties have more people per BHHS professional, indicating lower workforce availability.
- Gray counties have zero BHHS professionals.
The geographic distribution map of all BHHS professionals in Indiana can be found here.
This visualization helps identify geographic areas with potential workforce gaps and can be used to inform targeted recruitment, retention, and policy strategies to improve access to services across the state.
by Guest Author | Jan 6, 2026 | Data
Indiana’s behavioral health and human services (BHHS) workforce plays a vital role in supporting the wellbeing of communities across the state. The 2024 BHHS Workforce Data Report provides a look at who makes up this workforce, where they practice, and the services they deliver.
This year’s findings highlight that more than 10,460 professionals actively practice in Indiana, with clinical social workers representing the largest share. The report reveals a workforce that is predominately female, largely trained at the master’s level, and significantly engaged in telehealth.
The data also offers insight into supervision, populations served, and geographic distribution, identifying areas of strong coverage and continued need.
Explore the full report below.
by Guest Author | Jan 6, 2026 | Policy
Indiana lawmakers have convened for the 2026 legislative session. This year is not a budget year, so the session will be shorter than in 2025. Several bills filed early already signal a continued interest in strengthening the state’s health workforce, including some legislation impacting the veterinarian and nursing workforces. A blog highlighting themes across all filed legislation will be coming later this month!
Throughout the 2026 Indiana legislative session, the Bowen Center will be monitoring health workforce legislation through the Bowen Bill Brief (B3). This marks the eighth legislative session that the Bowen Center has monitored and shared health workforce legislation in this way. The B3 is a customizable tracker that allows users to see up to date information about bills with a potential impact on the health workforce. Users can search for keywords of interest or filter by topic.
What’s New This Year?
Bill topic categories have changed slightly and are included below.
- Animal Health
- Behavioral Health (Substance Use and Mental Health)
- Corrections
- Cost
- Direct Care Workforce
- EMS Workforce
- Maternal/Child Health
- Nursing Workforce
- Oral Health
- Other
- Physician Workforce
- Prevention and Awareness (Public Health, Infrastructure, and Healthy and Active Living)
- Regulatory (Agency, Boards, Professional Licensing Agency)
- Safety Net (Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, etc.)
- School Health
- Workforce Pipeline (Education)
- Workforce Incentive Programs
In addition to tracking legislation, the Bowen Center will continue working to elevate data into policy conversations and providing stakeholders with clear and objective information throughout the session.
Stay tuned as we monitor developments and highlight the policies shaping Indiana’s health workforce landscape. In the mean time, bone up on how a bill becomes a law in Indiana on our Policy 101 page.
