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.
Indiana’s behavioral health workforce depends on strong field and clinical supervision, yet many professionals struggle with access. New data show that fewer than one in five licensed clinicians participate in field or clinical supervision.
Many current supervisors report they they do not receive financial incentives for serving in this capacity and also report that supervision causes disruption to daily workload. This highlights that there may be opportunities to better support the workforce currently serving as clinical supervisors through financial incentives or modifications to operational productivity procedures.
Additionally, the data show that many individuals serving as supervisors are concentrated in urban areas across the state. Innovative solutions are necessary to ensure sufficient clinical training capacity to support the growth of a qualified workforce able to serve Hoosiers living in rural communities.
During the 2025 legislative session, several bills were introduced or passed focused on clinical training for behavioral health professionals. This signals promising momentum, but the data suggests a continued need for strategies to grow the pool of supervisors.
According to SAMHSA, nearly 50 million Americans meet diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders, yet significant workforce shortages continue to limit access to care. Our national initiative, funded by the Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts, aims to address one aspect of this challenge by developing a national framework. This framework will provide recommendations to move towards consistency in how behavioral health/substance use paraprofessional roles are regulated, educated, and reimbursed.
In this recorded webinar, Bowen Center Director Dr. Hannah Maxey shares initial findings from our 50-state policy review and wage economic analysis, discusses the current landscape of paraprofessional roles, and outlines opportunities for stakeholders to contribute to framework development.
Certified nurse midwives (CNMs) play a vital role in supporting women through pregnancy, birth, and beyond. In addition to maternity care, CNMs provide primary care, gynecological services, and newborn care during the first month of life. These advanced practice nurses work in diverse settings, including hospitals, clinics, and birth centers, and their expertise is increasingly in demand across Indiana.
Read more about them below. Watch the Indiana Department of Health’s two short vide4os that offer an inside view of the profession. These “day-in-the-life” videos highlight the variety and impact of CNM work in real-world settings.
The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy is proud to announce our continued partnership with The Pew Charitable Trusts on a new initiative focused on suicide prevention policy. This collaboration builds on shared efforts to strengthen the Suicide Care and prevention health workforce and improve care delivery through evidence-based policy analysis.
The project will examine how state-level policies and programs, including training requirements, staffing ratios, workforce incentives, and liability protections, impact the implementation of suicide prevention services in acute care settings. Through state policy case studies and key informant interviews, the Bowen Center will assess policy design, implementation, and outcomes, offering practical considerations for improving the workforce providing Suicide Prevention services and care.
This announcement coincides with Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness and promoting action to reduce suicide risk. By continuing this partnership, the Bowen Center and Pew aim to inform policy decisions that address workforce barriers and enhance suicide prevention efforts nationwide. The Bowen Center remains committed to supporting data-driven strategies that empower health professionals and improve access to quality care in Suicide Prevention.
In the face of a growing youth mental health crisis, Child Psychiatry Access Programs (CPAPs) have emerged as a vital solution to bridge gaps in care. The Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research and Policy’s latest report, Pathways to Sustainability: A Road Map for Child Psychiatry Access Programs, offers a comprehensive analysis of funding models that can ensure the long-term viability of these programs. Highlighting Indiana’s own “Be Happy” initiative, the report explores five potential sustainable funding strategies including: grant-funded, insurer-supported, direct reimbursement, state-appropriated, and health system integration and the actionable insights for policymakers, providers, and advocates. As mental health needs continue to rise, this roadmap is a timelyand essential guide for sustaining access to care for children and adolescents across the country. Dive into the full report below to learn more about how these funding models work.
We’ve re-thought and redesigned our data reports, and are moving to a web-based design, which allows for more interactivity and lets users directly download the underlying data. Let us know your thoughts on this new, web-first interactive data report design by sending an email to bowenctr@iu.edu.
