EWSU Community Conversation on Lead & Drinking Water
EWSU Community Conversation on Lead & Drinking Water
Gov. Mike Braun Signs Executive Orders to Invest in a Healthier Indiana
- 25-20 – Faithful Execution of Pro-Life Laws: Directs the Indiana Department of Health to ensure compliance with state pro-life laws, including reporting on terminated pregnancies, to make certain state laws are followed and enforced.
- 25-21 – Improve Price Transparency: Directs state agencies to enhance price transparency across healthcare services, empowering Hoosiers with clear, upfront pricing to make informed decisions.
- 25-22 – Hospital Charity Care: Calls for an evaluation of the value of non-profit hospital charity care compared to the tax savings these hospitals receive, ensuring these institutions fulfill their commitment to public service.
- 25-23 – Healthcare Affordability Measures: Directs state agencies to prioritize tackling surprise billing, pharmacy benefit managers, and high drug prices to make healthcare more affordable for Hoosiers.
- 25-24 – Assessing Waste, Fraud, and Abuse: Directs the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) and the State Personnel Department (SPD) to conduct independent audits of healthcare expenditures in Medicaid and the State Employee Health Plan respectively, and report findings in order to root out inefficiencies and misuse of taxpayer dollars.
- 25-25 – Health and Family Services Dashboard: Directs the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) to develop an interactive dashboard to streamline healthcare programs, reduce redundancy, and improve the quality and cost of care for Hoosiers.
- 25-26 – Agency Data Sharing: Encourages state agencies to collaborate and share data to improve efficiency, and ensure better outcomes for Hoosiers.
- 25-27 – 340B Program: Directs state agencies to examine the use of the 340B program by hospitals in order to make sure participating facilities are eligible for the program and serving needy populations, and to ensure the system is not exploited for profit.
- 25-28 – Split Risk Pools: Directs the Department of Insurance to take steps necessary to allow health insurers to offer split risk pools for insurance, providing Hoosiers with more tailored and cost-effective insurance plans.
Legislation authored by O’Brien to create a new pediatric cancer research fund moves through committee
Legislation authored by O’Brien to create a new pediatric cancer research fund moves through committee
STATEHOUSE (Jan. 22, 2025) – A bill authored by State Rep. Tim O’Brien (R-Evansville) to create a new grant program for pediatric cancer research unanimously passed committee and now moves on in the House of Representatives for further consideration.
O’Brien said through House Bill 1453, the Pediatric Cancer Research and Treatment Grant Program would focus on providing grant funding for innovative research into novel forms of treatment.
“House Bill 1453 aims to establish a dedicated pediatric cancer research and treatment grant program in Indiana. This initiative will fund innovative research and novel therapies to improve outcomes for children with cancer,” O’Brien said. “By creating this program, we can help ensure that Indiana’s children receive cutting-edge treatment and support. I’m proud to author this legislation and urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it this legislative session.”
According to the Indiana Department of Health, more than 300 new cases of pediatric cancer occurred each year in Hoosier children ages 0 to 19 between 2016 to 2020. Additionally, more than 30 children in Indiana died from cancer annually between 2016 to 2020.
According to the American Cancer Society, more than 9,000 children in the U.S. are expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2025. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 14, and over 1,000 children under age 15 are expected to die from cancer in 2025.
O’Brien said by further funding pediatric cancer research, novel therapies developed in Indiana could have an impact not only in our state, but could also lead to treatments used throughout the U.S.
House Bill 1453 passed the House Public Health committee by a vote of 11-0 and now moves on for further consideration. To learn more about the bill and follow session, visit iga.in.gov.
Bill to Provide Medicaid Relief for Hospitals Clears First Hurdle in Legislative Process
Bill to Provide Medicaid Relief for Hospitals Clears First Hurdle in Legislative Process
HB 1586 Passes House Public Health Committee 11-0
January 22, 2025 (INDIANAPOLIS) — Members of the Indiana House Public Health Committee voted unanimously 11-0 today in favor of House Bill (HB) 1586 to provide significant Medicaid relief for Indiana hospitals and improve access to care for Hoosiers if passed this session.
According to the Indiana Hospital Association, it’s been over 30 years since Indiana raised its Medicaid base rates paid to hospitals, which are reimbursed only 57 cents on the dollar on average for every Medicaid patient they serve. This results in $2.7 billion in unpaid statewide health care costs each year.
Authored by Chairman Rep. Brad Barrett (R-Richmond), HB 1586 would allow Indiana hospitals to be assessed up to the federally allowable maximum through the Hospital Assessment Fee (HAF) to leverage additional federal funding that would raise Medicaid reimbursement for hospitals at no cost to the state. The federal model, called a State Directed Payment Program, has been enacted in 38 other states or territories across the U.S., including in all of Indiana’s surrounding states.
“Thanks to Chairman Barrett and members of the House Public Health Committee, we have an opportunity to maintain and improve access across the state through this important legislation and decrease the reliance of hospitals on higher reimbursement from employer-sponsored health plans,” said Scott B. Tittle, president of the Indiana Hospital Association “The current shortfall in unpaid Medicaid costs not only hurts our state’s hospitals, but harms consumers, who must pay increasing premiums to cover this cost-shifting gap.”
According to Kaufman Hall, Indiana hospitals operated on less than a 1% operating margin cumulatively in 2023, lagging below the national average of 2.3%. Meanwhile, hospital operating expenses exceeded national growth, creating unsustainable financial conditions that make it difficult to maintain access to necessary services, IHA said.
Since 2019, 13 birthing units have closed in Indiana with nine of those having closed within the past two years.
“Without immediate assistance, ongoing Medicaid underpayments will only exacerbate the closure of health care services across the state,” said Tittle. “HB 1586 would allow Indiana to join our surrounding states and utilize a federal program that would boost these low rates and protect access to care in all communities.”
Hospital leaders from Schneck Medical Center, Methodist Hospitals, and Marion Health testified in support of the bill.
“Not only does this proposal direct more funding towards our small, rural hospitals, it provides enhanced reimbursement for rural birthing hospitals to improve access and health outcomes for Hoosier moms and babies,” said Dr. Eric Fish, president and CEO of Schneck Medical Center based in Seymour, Indiana. “Protecting our remaining birthing centers is something we must prioritize at the state level, and HB 1586 goes directly toward that effort.”
“As a safety net hospital that relies heavily on government funding to serve a disproportionate share of Medicare and Medicaid patients, I am here to tell you we cannot wait one more session,” said Matthew Doyle, president and CEO of Methodist Hospitals serving Northwest Indiana from Lake County. “This is the path for Methodist to remain viable in our community, protect access for the patients we serve, and help every hospital in the state do the same.”
“We take pride in our ability to serve the critical health care needs of our rural community as an independent hospital,” said Stephanie Hilton-Siebert, president and CEO of Marion Health in Grant County. “But it is increasingly challenging for hospitals like Marion Health to maintain independence without immediate changes to Indiana’s Medicaid program. For years to come, this legislation will be the difference between maintaining a positive operating margin or not—for our hospital and for all hospitals across Indiana.”
To learn more about HB 1586 visit IHAconnect.org.
VU Trailblazers get 10th straight win going wire-to-wire over Olney Central
No. 16 Trailblazers get 10th straight win going wire-to-wire over Olney Central
VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers jumped up eight spots this week in the NJCAA Division I National rankings, checking in this week at No. 16, while also holding the No. 7 spot in the JUCO Advocate Media Poll and No. 6 in the Nielsen File Top 25 rankings.
The Trailblazers showed why they deserve to continue to climb in the rankings Wednesday night inside the Physical Education Complex, posting a big 102-58 Region 24 victory over Olney Central College.
This is the 10th straight victory for the Trailblazers and their fourth straight win leading from tip to buzzer.
The Trailblazers have not trailed in a game since early in the second half against Volunteer State Community College back on Jan. 4.
Vincennes was able to get the game started with another big early run as VU quickly took control of the game and held a big 24-6 lead over the Blue Knights.
VU was able to get ahead early with the help of seven big first half three-pointers, shooting an impressive 41 percent from behind the arc in the first half.
VU continued to add to their lead and closed out the first half on a 7-0 scoring run to take a 54-27 advantage into the locker room at the break.
Coming out in the second half Olney Central looked to battle back early but were unable to chip away at the big deficit.
Vincennes used a 17-4 run to increase the lead to 78-40 before emptying the bench at about the eight minute mark and putting the game in cruise control.
The VU reserves continued to connect from long range throughout the second half, hitting six of 14 three-point shots in the second half to give VU 13 made triples in the game and shooting 42 percent from long range in the game.
Vincennes continued to pull away and closed out the game with a big 102-58 victory over Olney Central College.
“I thought we moved the ball pretty well,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “There were a lot of possessions in the game, we scored a bunch of points and only had six turnovers. I would have liked to see us be a little bit more intense about posting hard inside at times. Then there were times when we did and we scored. But I thought offensively we were fine.”
“We’ve seen a lot of zone and we’ve seen a lot of everything, so at this point our comfort level against all of these things is just up to us,” Franklin added. “Can we go out there, do what we are supposed to and be in a rhythm. We know how to try and dissect it and I think as you are seeing that, you are getting obviously better. You get a better rhythm. You get a better ability to not turn the ball over. You are able to move the ball better because you know where to move it. So I think the one thing that I would nitpick a little bit about is that I did not think that we posted as hard.”
“I thought that we could score in there and you saw when Kenaz did, he scores easily,” Franklin said. “Kenaz is honestly the most natural scorer we’ve had inside since Lony Francis, Jr. He’s shooting like 78 percent. He scores. It’s just about getting him to play with the intensity and the hunger of wanting to do that. Where Lony, you didn’t have to worry about that. Lony wanted to do it. Kenaz has more bounce and more spring and more abilities, he can just go and get it. So it’s going to be big. He didn’t do anything in the first half, he wasn’t ready. We tried to get him to post up and he was in the short corner. If you watch the second half, when he wanted to, you know why. There’s nobody in our league that can stop him when he wants to get down and go to work. We’ve just got to find some way to break through that wall to get him to where he wants to do it all the time.”
“Other than that we were pretty okay,” Franklin added. “We are getting guys that are getting wide open shots in the corner and we’ve got a couple that haven’t hit them. If we ever start doing that, which they can, we’ll really roll up some things. When you get 102 like tonight and we don’t press and trap and try to get that and we score over 100 against Lake Land on Saturday, as we start getting more intense about wanting it inside and we start having guys pop that wide open corner shot, we’ll be awful hard to handle because we’re getting those turnovers down under control. Getting that to six tonight was really good.”
“Defensively, I can’t really say a whole lot because for the most part we stopped everything but Bethea,” Franklin said. “And it was just that he’s going one on one with a rub screen every once in a while. We’ve got to sit down and cover better at that position. But he hit some step backs but we’re going to get back and go to work on that these next couple of days to see if we can’t get a little bit better at moving our feet there. Other than that, we stopped them. He had 34 and they had nobody else in double figures.”
“I thought we got a little loose and gave them some offensive rebounds and didn’t get after some loose balls during one stretch in the first half and gave them some points but for the most part we were okay there,” Franklin added.
All 13 active VU players entered the game Wednesday night and all 13 Trailblazers scored against the Blue Knights.
VU was led offensively by a big night from sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) who finished 24 points, 17 of which coming in the first half, to go along with eight rebounds and three assists.
Freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) got the VU offense going early with four first half threes on his way to 14 points, three rebounds and three blocks.
Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) picked up the first double-double of his Trailblazer career Wednesday night, finishing the game with 12 points, a team-high 15 rebounds and six assists.
Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) was the fourth VU scorer in double figures, finishing his game with 10 points and three rebounds.
“I thought Lebron did a good job because he moved the ball,” Franklin said. “He didn’t try to force stuff. You get a guy like that, sometimes he thinks ‘I’m not getting a bunch of points’ and they start to force it. He’s got himself locked in right now to where he’s going to move it and we’re going to get great shots and not turn it over and that’s his job. So he’s doing a good job there.”
“I thought Michael Cooper had a really good night tonight,” Franklin added. “I thought offensively Michael was really good, efficient, hit his shots from the right places. He got the ball and drove it sometimes, got on the offensive glass some. You look at his numbers, he had no turnovers, three assists, he only played about 24 minutes. I thought he was good. I thought he was really good on both ends. They didn’t put a whole lot of pressure on him on the defensive end. He just had to make sure that he stayed up on Nash. We gave him the assignment of guarding a smaller guy who can really shoot it and stretch it out and for the most part he did a really good job with that.”
“Bryan got on the glass some,” Franklin said. “Him and Michael combined for 23 rebounds, 15 by Bryan and eight by Michael. But the best news out of that was that those two guys only had one turnover in basically 50 minutes combined play with nine assists. They have been a little turnover prone and that’s been one of the problems. They haven’t really been forced turnovers, they just turn the ball over. Tonight they only had one and tonight that’s probably the difference of scoring over 100 or scoring in the high 80s.”
“It was fine, we’ll go back to work tomorrow,” Franklin added. “There’s a number of good things in here but there are things that I can go to work at and be a little unhappy about tomorrow at practice.”
Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) moved the ball well all night for Vincennes, leading the Blazers with 10 assist to go along with six rebounds and five points.
The Trailblazers will look to keep this momentum going into the weekend as VU gets set to head to Mt. Carmel, Ill. Saturday, Jan. 25 where VU will square off against Wabash Valley College at 7 p.m. eastern.
This will be the first of three straight road games for the Trailblazers as VU will head to Centralia, Ill. Wednesday, Jan. 29 to face off against Kaskaskia College at 7 p.m. eastern and then head to Carterville, Ill. Saturday, Feb. 1 to take on John A. Logan College at 4 p.m. eastern.
“We just need to have Championship level intensity,” Franklin said. “I don’t know how to explain that to everybody. It’s in every facet and in every deal. We know it now. It’s about being at that and locking into that. It’s about going back and watching tonight where we could have been and should have been better individually and saying ‘yeah, I know why Coach says that now’ or ‘yeah, I didn’t do that, but if I had I would have had a better chance of stopping them’. But just getting it tuned up for Saturday. Every day we are just trying to put together a Championship effort from here on out. That’s all it is.”
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (102): Bryan Akanmu 4-10 4-4 12, Michael Cooper 10-13 1-1 24, Kenaz Ochogwu 5-7 0-0 10, Lebron Thomas 2-5 0-0 5, Dayton Williams 4-7 2-2 14, Christian Andrews 3-8 0-0 7, Meyoh Swansey 3-5 0-0 8, Jalen Calloway 1-5 0-0 2, Taveon Smith 2-2 0-0 5, Travelle Bryson 2-4 0-0 5, Darstin Onye 1-2 0-0 2, Ali Sakho 2-3 1-2 5, Hussein Elmaraghy 1-3 1-2 3, Team 40-74 9-11 102.
Olney Central – 27 31 – 58
VU (16-3, 6-0) – 54 48 – 102
Three-point goals: VU 13 (Williams 4, Cooper 3, Swansey 2, Thomas, Andrews, Smith, Bryson). Rebounds: VU 55 (Akanmu 15). Assists: VU 33 (Thomas 10). Steals: VU 2 (Thomas, Calloway). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Williams 3). Turnovers: VU 6. Personal Fouls: VU 14. Fouled Out: None.
EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT
FOOTNOTE: EPD DAILY ACTIVITY REPORT information was provided by the EPD and posted by the City-County-County Observer without opinion, bias, or editing.
Defense shines as Lady Blazers get Region win over Olney Central
Defense shines as Lady Blazers get Region win over Olney Central
VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers returned to the home court Wednesday for a Region 24 showdown with Olney Central College from nearby Olney, Ill.
The offenses for both teams struggled all night but it was the Vincennes defense that was able to come out on top in the end, coming away with a 52-43 victory over the Lady Blue Knights.
The game was a defensive struggle from the very beginning with both teams having a hard time finding the bottom of the net early before the Lady Blazers were able to get some shots to fall and ride a 12-2 scoring run to take a 15-6 and end the first quarter of play holding a 15-9 advantage.
Olney Central came back firing in the second quarter, cutting the VU lead down to just a single point at 17-16 before the Lady Blazers closed out the first half strong by scoring the final five points of the half to head into the locker room holding a 25-20 lead.
Vincennes was able to carry this momentum over into the start of the third quarter where VU opened the second half with five straight points.
The Lady Blue Knights continued to battle and cut the deficit to five and the Lady Blazers were able to get the lead to 39-33 heading into the fourth quarter.
Olney Central again attempted a late run at the Lady Blazers early in the fourth, getting the VU lead down to 42-40 but Vincennes again was able to regain the momentum and ride the home crowd to close out the game on a 10-3 run to come away with the 52-43 victory over Olney Central.
The Lady Blazers defense controlled the game all night, forcing 22 turnovers and holding the Lady Blue Knights to just 22 percent shooting from the floor.
VU was led offensively by another big game by freshman Emani Washington (Indianapolis, Ind.) who came away with 12 points, six rebounds, five assists and three steals.
Sophomore Marta Gutierrez (Alicante, Spain) matched Washington’s 12 points to lead the Lady Blazers, while also dishing out a team-high seven assists to go along with six rebounds.
Freshman Jasmyn Robey (Sellersburg, Ind.) was the third VU scorer in double figures Wednesday night, coming off the bench to add 10 points, three rebounds and a pair of steals.
Freshman Delora Pricop (Satu Mare, Romania) just missed out on another double-double with eight points, a team-high 11 rebounds and setting a new career-high with seven big blocks in the game.
Freshman Ahmya Thomas (Phoenix, Ariz.) came away with eight points, six rebounds and three steals, while freshman Yanni Huggins (Belleville, Mich.) rounded out the VU box score with two points, seven rebounds and a team-high five steals.
The Lady Trailblazers will hit the road again this weekend as they get set to head to nearby Mt. Carmel, Ill. Saturday, Jan. 25 and face-off with No. 7-ranked Wabash Valley College at 5 p.m. eastern.
This will be the first of three straight road games for the Lady Blazers as they head to Hillsboro, Mo. Monday, Jan. 27 to take on Jefferson College at 6 p.m. eastern and face-off against John A. Logan College in Carterville, Ill. Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2 p.m. eastern.
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (52): Delora Pricop 4-12 0-1 8, Ahmya Thomas 2-12 3-5 8, Marta Gutierrez 3-7 6-10 12, Yanni Huggins 1-5 0-0 2, Emani Washington 5-14 0-0 12, Jazmyn Robey 4-10 1-2 10, Team 19-60 10-18 52.
Olney Central – 9 11 13 10 – 43
VU (10-10, 5-1) – 15 10 14 13 – 52
Three-point goals: VU 4 (Washington 2, Thomas, Robey). Rebounds: VU 39 (Pricop 11). Assists: VU 18 (Gutierrez 7). Steals: VU 17 (Huggins 5). Blocked Shots: VU 9 (Pricop 7). Turnovers: VU 14. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: Hartsfield (2nd – 2:20).
