All but six of Indiana’s 92 counties have applied for their share of a $225 million investment in public health infrastructure championed by Gov. Eric Holcomb.

Appearing on the ISMA podcast “The Clinic,” Indiana Department of Health Commissioner Lindsay Weaver, MD, noted the $225 million represents a mammoth increase over the $7 million per year the state had been allocating to local health departments. Before legislators approved the new funding during the 2023 session, 37 counties were spending less than $10 per capita on public health.

The funding seeks to tackle Indiana’s chronically poor health rankings at the local level, providing counties with data on their health issues and giving health departments resources to address their most pressing local needs, in partnership with local elected officials, hospitals, clinics and schools. 

“The legislators, the governor, everyone recognized that there is an opportunity here to invest in public health, to really get in front of our health problems,” Weaver said. 

The increased funding is the first installment of what Holcomb has said should be a permanent addition to future state budgets. A commission Holcomb appointed to study Indiana’s public health system recommended nearly a half-billion dollars in health spending throughout the two-year budget to provide local health departments resources to address Indiana’s chronically poor rankings across various health metrics.

With some county officials testifying in fierce opposition, legislators chopped the appropriation roughly in half, allocating $75 million in the first year of the two-year budget and $150 million in the second year, reasoning that many counties might decline to request the money, especially at first.

All counties except Crawford, Fountain, Harrison, Johnson, Wells and Whitley voted to accept the money.
 
Weaver noted the program, now called Health First Indiana, is designed to help counties determine their most pressing public health issues and let them craft their ideas for addressing their own local public health needs.

Weaver said one county with high rates of hypertension plans to distribute blood pressure cuffs to dentist and ophthalmologist offices, with referral information to primary care providers or the county health department. Another county plans to recruit more social workers to ensure patients receiving mental health treatment have adequate follow-up after being discharged.

Weaver cautioned it will take time for the new spending to impact Indiana’s health metrics. She said IDOH will set data goals to assess what programs are working.

The law establishing Health First Indiana also calls for implementing the Public Health Commission’s recommendation to strengthen Indiana’s trauma care network. A state trauma commission will award grants to upgrade hospitals to handle trauma patients in areas where the nearest trauma-care hospital is now more than 45 minutes away.

The program requires counties to chip in a 20% local match for basic health services. 

A county-by-county funding breakdown can be read here. 

Listen to Dr. Weaver’s full interview on “The Clinic” here.