More than 10,000 Hoosiers are waiting for home- and community-based services through Medicaid waivers, including those waiting to go into assisted living facilities. A House committee approved a bill that aims to eliminate as many barriers to assisted living for older Hoosiers as possible.

Last year, families of medically complex children found themselves at the center of the Family and Social Services Administration’s response to the 2023 Medicaid forecasting error. A House committee approved legislation that could provide more transparency as the agency makes changes to an important Medicaid waiver.

Indiana law classifies tools that test the “strength, effectiveness, or purity of a controlled substance” as paraphernalia. This created a “gray area” for fentanyl test strips. The Senate passed legislation to clarify tools that check for the presence of a substance would no longer be considered paraphernalia.

Health care facilities are barred from hiring employees who have been convicted of certain criminal offenses, including felony convictions within the last five years related to “controlled substances.” The House passed legislation that would allow an exception for peer recovery coaches.

Drones have been reported near farms quarantined for bird flu at Adams, Allen, Jackson and Jay counties in Indiana and locations in Ohio. Security officials warn they could spread the virus.

Research and basic information on subjects ranging from tuberculosis surveillance to adolescent health disappeared from federal health agency websites.

A 2023 law made it easier for some Indiana medical providers to offer telehealth services. But, speech-language pathology assistants weren’t included under that law. State lawmakers now want to correct that.

Employers who sponsor health plans typically utilize administrators, like pharmacy benefits managers, to facilitate those plans. But, that doesn’t mean those intermediaries have to act in the best interest of the plan sponsors. A Senate committee approved a bill Wednesday that would change that.

The ideas being proposed could amount to more than $2 trillion of cuts to the country’s public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans over the next decade — and could potentially push millions of people off the program.

Research shows that kids may start experimenting with substances around ages 11 or 12. But many substance use programs don’t serve people that young.