ST. LOUIS – University of Southern Indiana Women’s Basketball showcased a strong defensive performance on Wednesday night, outlasting Saint Louis University 68-52 toward the Screaming Eagles’ first road victory of the season.
The Screaming Eagles (2-1) built off their strong defense to pull away late in the second half against the Billikens (1-3). Following a five-point halftime margin, USI outscored Saint Louis by 11 in the second half.
While USI shot the ball at a 40 percent rate (27-68), the Eagles held Saint Louis to only 30 percent from the floor (17-56). USI also limited the Billikens to 24 percent (6-25) from distance. The Eagles knocked 7-19 for 37 percent from three.
USI had five players score in double figures on Wednesday. Senior guard Ali Saunders led all scorers with a game-high 15 points and dished out five assists. Junior guard Sophia Loden added 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Junior guard Shannon Blacher tallied 11 points, and sophomore guard Lexi Sepulveda netted 11 points off the bench, one off her career high. Junior forward Chloe Gannon registered 10 points.
In a defensive first half of basketball, Gannon got the Screaming Eagles going to open the contest with a pair of baskets. The two teams exchanged blows in the middle of the first quarter. USI built a 12-7 lead with under four minutes left in the opening period following consecutive makes by Loden and Sepulveda off two Saint Louis turnovers. The Eagles’ lead grew to seven, but the Billikens closed the gap in the final minute. USI led 16-13 through the first 10 minutes of action.
The game went scoreless for the first two and a half minutes of the second quarter, which was followed by another scoring drought. The first field goal of the second frame came with 4:30 left in the first half. The Billikens hit a triple and another basket to take an 18-17 lead. The Screaming Eagles answered with an 8-0 run off a couple of made three-pointers by Sepulveda and junior forward Amiyah Buchanan, as well as a jumper from Saunders. USI ended up going into the halftime locker room with a 26-21 advantage.
The Eagles came out of the break on fire, scoring 26 third-quarter points. Blacher scored a couple of field goals, including a three-pointer, early in the quarter, while Saunders drained a pair of threes in the middle of the third to help USI’s lead grow to 41-32 halfway through the quarter. Blacher scored again on a layup with four minutes left in the third to extend the Screaming Eagles’ advantage into double digits, 45-34. Saint Louis made a small run, but USI carried a 52-43 lead to the fourth quarter.
After a higher-scoring third quarter, USI’s defense dug in for the final frame and limited Saint Louis to single-digit scoring in a quarter for the second time in the game. The Eagles took advantage of six Billiken turnovers in the fourth quarter. Buchanan and Sepulveda each converted off Saint Louis turnovers near the midway point of the fourth to push USI’s lead to 13, 58-45. A pair of made jumpers from Saunders in the last two and a half minutes to give USI a 14-point cushion helped cement the victory before an exclamation point three-pointer by Blacher in the waning seconds of the contest.
USI will be back home for the next two games over the next couple of weeks. The Screaming Eagles’ next game will be against Indiana University East on Monday, November 17, at 6 p.m. inside Liberty Arena.
Eagles open road slate with win against Billikens
Screaming Eagles fall on the road to Coyotes, 89-74
VERMILLION, S.D. – University of Southern Indiana Men’s Basketball fell on the road, losing to the University of South Dakota, 89-74, Wednesday evening in Vermillion, South Dakota. The Screaming Eagles are 0-3 to start the year, while USD begins 2025-26, 2-2.
USI senior guard Ismail Habib hit the opening bucket of the game and propelled the Eagles to an early six-point lead, 10-4. The Coyotes rallied to take the lead, 12-10, and started a run of four lead changes over the next seven minutes.
South Dakota took the lead for good in the first half when it generated a 14-2 run to lead, 29-18, with 5:47 before halftime.
The Eagles responded and pulled to within four points, 35-31, when junior guard Kaden Brown sank a three-pointer from downtown. Brown scored six of his team-best first-half nine points during the run.
The Coyotes re-extended the lead to 12 points by the end of the half, 44-32, by outscoring USI, 7-1, in the final two minutes before the intermission.
USI started slow in the second half and found itself down 17, 53-36, after five minutes had passed. The Eagles’ offense was only able to connect on two of seven from the field during the start of the final 20 minutes.
After falling behind by 19 points, 58-39, the Eagles’ offense made a small 7-0 dash to pull to within 12, 58-46, with 12:01 left. Brown, Habib, and senior guard Sheridan Sharp combined to contribute the points during the run.
The Eagles were never able to close the gap further and cross the double-digit barrier in the final 10 minutes of the game as the Coyotes closed out the 89-74 final.
In the scoring column, Habib led three Eagles in double-digits with 19 points. The senior guard was five-of-14 from the field, including two three-pointers, and seven-of-nine from the stripe.
Brown followed close behind with nine more points in the second half for 18. The junior guard posted four-of-11 from the field, including the three first-half three-point field goals, and seven-of-nine from the line.
Senior guard Cardell Bailey rounded out the double-digit scorers with 10 points. He also had a team-high eight rebounds.
Next Up For USI:
USI returns home to host Loras University Sunday at 3 p.m. in Liberty Arena. The Eagles lead the all-time series, 2-0, after winning the last meeting in 2022-23, 87-55, at home.
Purple Aces Drop Road Contest at Eastern Kentucky
RICHMOND, Ky. – Sophomore Avery Kelley (Evansville, Ind./Memorial) scored a team-high 15 points for her second double figure scoring effort of the season on Wednesday night, but the Evansville women’s basketball team fell to host Eastern Kentucky by a score of 83-60 inside Baptist Health Arena.
Logan Luebbers Palmer (Union, Ky./Randall K. Cooper) added 10 points for the Aces, while Elle Snyder (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) led the team with six rebounds.
EKU began the game red-hot from the field, shooting 70% in the first quarter of play to open up an early lead. Lubbers Palmer scored the Aces’ first two baskets of the night before Kelley knocked down a three-point jumper, making it a 15-7 game at the 6:16 mark. However, the Colonels continued to stay hot, extending the lead to 19 at the end of the quarter.
Midway through the second quarter, Evansville put together a run, with Sydney Huber (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Mount Vernon) and Kelley helping the Aces to a seven-point scoring swing. However, EKU went on run of their own to end the half, taking a 57-31 lead at the break.
Transfer Mireia Mustaros (Barcelona, Spain/Odessa College) led the Aces in the third quarter, scoring six points, but the Colonels took a 73-46 lead into the fourth quarter.
After another basket from Mustaros to start the final quarter of play, Luebbers Palmer knocked down a three-pointer to get into double figures for the second game in a row. The fourth quarter also saw the first collegiate points from Daniela Llavero (Malaga, Spain/IES Mediterráneo), while fellow freshman BreAunna Ward (St. Louis, John Burroughs School) added a basket in a night in which she scored her first collegiate points, finishing the game with six points.
The Aces return to action on Sunday, closing out a season-opening road swing at Wright State. Tip-off is set for 1 PM from Dayton.
Four-Goal Outburst Powers Aces to MVC Championship Game
Evansville will host the MVC Championship on Saturday at 6 PM
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Entering the MVC Tournament with the number one seed for the first time in program history, the University of Evansville men’s soccer team flexed their muscles on Wednesday night, besting fifth-seeded UIC 4-1 at Arad McCutchan Stadium.
MVC Freshman of the Year Andres Escudero (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain/IES Joan Miro) notched his fourth brace of the season, scoring the Aces’ first and fourth goals. Devin Shepherd (Denver, Colo./Arapahoe) and Nate Roberts (Las Vegas, Nev./Bishop Gorman) added goals to mark Evansville’s highest scoring output of the season.
Evansville jumped on the Flames immediately, with Pablo Calvete (Ponferrada, Spain/UNIR) taking the ball away from a UIC player and using some nifty dribbling to send a through ball to Escudero. From there, Evansville’s star freshman used his speed to get behind the defense and sneak a right-footed shot past the UIC keeper and inside the far post to net his 10th goal of the season.
The Purple Aces kept the pressure on, as Escudero nearly found another goal less than two minutes later, beginning a barrage of six shots in the next 20 minutes of play. The Aces broke through in the 25th minute on a wild sequence, with Escudero and Tancredi Fadda (Monza, Italy/University of Milan) tallying shots before Shepherd came up with possession. From just inside the right side of the box, Sheperd struck, hitting the crossbar and finding the back of the net for his fifth goal of the year, making it 2-0.
The Evansville offense kept humming in the first half, finding another scoring chance in the 35th minute off an errant pass from the UIC keeper. Armon Haghighat (Irvine, Calif./Irvine Valley CC) corralled the ball before passing to Roberts, who gave the ball to Ben Zec (Carmel, Ind./Carmel) at the top of the box. Zec gave the ball right back to Roberts, who slid a shot past the keeper for his second goal in the last three matches and increasing the lead to three.
In the final minute of the half, UIC earned a penalty, and although the penalty shot was saved by Evansville keeper Michal Mroz (Elk Grove, Ill./Elk Grove), the Flames’ Edouard Nys collected his shot and tapped the ball in to make it 3-1 heading into half.
Evansville put a cherry on top of the night in the 66th minute of play, finding their fourth goal of the evening. Nacho Diaz-Caneja (Coruña, Spain/Oregon State) started the attack, putting a beautiful pass into the box for Shepherd. Although Shepherd’s shot was saved, Escudero collected the deflection right in front of the goal for a tap-in, securing the brace.
On the night, Evansville out-shot UIC 20-9, including a 12-4 advantage in shots on goal. Escudero and Shepherd each tallied five shots on the night, with Escudero putting four on target and Shepherd adding three. Mroz made three saves for the Aces.
“It was a great performance,” said Head Coach Robbe Tarver. “The message this week has been “prove it”. I don’t think many people believed in this team before the season started, except the guys in the locker room. All year we have proven that we can be very good, and I said tonight you have to go prove it again, and I think that’s what our guys did.”
“I think they really have an understanding of what it means to wear Evansville across their chest and what they represent, who they represent, and the people that have come before them that have set the standard.”
“There have been meaningful soccer games in Evansville in November on our campus, and we wanted to get back to that. For us to have that tonight, with probably our best performance of the year, that was really special. Now it’s prove it again on Saturday, with even more people in the stands, because we are going to need another big crowd to win an MVC title!”
With the win, Evansville moves to 7-4-8 overall and advances to the MVC Championship game for the fourth time in the last five years, taking on sixth-seeded Western Michigan. Kick-off for Saturday’s MVC Championship at Arad McCutchan Stadium is set for 6 PM.
Late rally falls short as UE men fall to MTSU
Aces drop 77-72 decision
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Trailing by as many as 22 points in the second half, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team stormed back to get within two points before Middle Tennessee State finished with the 77-72 victory on Wednesday inside the Ford Center.
Facing a 61-39 deficit with 9:56 remaining, the Purple Aces outscored the Blue Raiders by a 33-13 margin to make it a 2-point game with 13 seconds remaining. MTSU fended off the challenge to take the win by five points.
“It is disappointing to lose at home but there are some positives to take from the game,” Evansville head coach David Ragland said. “To be down 22 and get back within a possession shows the character of our guys. I’m proud of how we responded; we need to be ready to get better.”
Connor Turnbull led five double digit scorers with a season-high 16 points. Bryce Quinet and Keishon Porter scored 14 each while Josh Hughes and AJ Casey registered 12 apiece. Hughes led all players with seven boards while Moeller added five assists. Quinet notched three steals in the contest. MTSU was led by Kamari Lands’ 23 points.
Over the opening three minutes of the game, Middle Tennessee State held multiple leads. After taking a 4-2 edge the Blue Raiders went up 9-7. Following a pair of free throws, Connor Turnbull knocked down a jumper to give UE an 11-9 lead at the 15:23 mark. The teams swapped the lead before Leif Moeller found Josh Hughes for a dunk that gave Evansville a 15-14 edge.
MTSU countered with an 8-0 stretch to go up 22-15 entering the final nine minutes of the period as they converted four consecutive field goal tries. Their lead reached nine at 28-19 with 7:22 on the clock. UE clawed its way back as two AJ Casey free throws were followed by baskets from Turnbull, Hughes, and Keishon Porter to cut the gap two 28-26.
Over the final three minutes, Middle Tennessee State scored the final six points to take a 36-28 lead at the half. Turnbull led the Aces with 10 at the half while Kamari Lands led all players with 13. MTSU hit five triples while limiting UE to one over the first 20 minutes of play.
In the opening minutes of the second half, MTSU scored the first four points to open a 40-28 advantage. A dunk by Turnbull marked UE’s first points of the half at the 17:05 mark. One minute later, AJ Casey’s 3-point play made it a 40-33 game. Over the next three minutes, the lead for the Blue Raiders remained around 11 points before another rally saw their lead grow even more.
An 8-0 run pushed the lead to 55-37 entering the last 12 minutes before it reached 22 points (61-39) two minutes later. Consecutive baskets by Porter opened a 9-2 run that was capped by a Hughes triple to cut the deficit to 15 (63-48). Evansville was not done yet. Inside four minutes remaining, two more Casey free throws were followed by Porter’s sixth field goal of the night to make it a 9-point game.
Two offensive rebounds by the Blue Raiders on their next possession saw them run a minute off the clock, but the defense kept them off the board. On the other end, Porter converted two free throws to cut the MTSU advantage to 71-64 with 1:16 remaining. On the inbound pass, UE forced a steal and Casey hit a layup to make it a 5-point game.
On the other end, MTSU hit a free throw to go back up by six. Leif Moeller drained his first triple of the evening on the other end to make it a 1-possession game with 45 seconds left. Evansville utilized an 11-1 run to chop the deficit down to three while hitting 10 out of 12 shots. The defense held MTSU to five consecutive misses and a 1-for-8 stretch. The drought for the Blue Raiders ended with under 20 seconds left when a basket pushed the lead to two possessions at 74-69.
UE made another final push as Bryce Quinet’s 3-point play got his squad within two. Unfortunately, it was not enough as MTSU finished with the 5-point win. The Blue Raiders shot 49.2% while the Aces were just behind at 48.1%. They also finished with a 35-31 rebounding edge.
Evansville is back at the Ford Center on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game against UT Arlington.
Screaming Eagles set for historic run
EVANSVILLE, Ind.—University of Southern Indiana Men’s and Women’s Cross Country makes their long-awaited return to the NCAA post-season Friday when they co-host the NCAA Division I Great Lakes Region Championships Friday at Angel Mounds.
Friday’s races mark the first time in school history that the Screaming Eagles will compete in an NCAA-sponsored post-season event in any sport, and they will do it in front of their home crowd.
A total of 35 schools from four states (Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin) and nine different conferences will converge on Angel Mounds Friday and the Screaming Eagles will find themselves competing against multiple Power 4 institutions, including six from the Big Ten.
USI’s men are coming off a second-place finish at the Ohio Valley Conference Championships two weeks ago in Charleston, Illinois. The Screaming Eagles finished in a tie with the University of Tennessee at Martin but lost out on a tiebreaker as UT-Martin claimed a 3-2 win in comparing the top five runners for each team against each other.
Junior Alex Nolan and senior Dominick Beine both earned first-team All-Conference honors after finishing third and sixth, respectively. Nolan was named the OVC Male Athlete of the Year the previous day after carding four top 20 finishes on the season and earning OVC Runner of the Week honors three times.
USI’s women were third at the OVC Championships despite placing three runners in the top 15 of the race. Sophomore Hadessah Austin and junior Ellie Hall both raced to first-team All-OVC honors with respective finishes of fourth and fifth, while junior Zoe Sewardfinished 14th to coral second-team All-OVC accolades.
Hall also was named the OVC Female Athlete of the Year after being named the OVC Runner of the Week twice and posting the conference’s fastest six-kilometer time (20 minutes, 58.5 seconds) during the regular season.
As for the field, Michigan State, Butler, Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Michigan respectively represent the top five teams in the most-recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association Great Lakes Region Poll. Purdue, Ohio State, Cincinnati, Toledo and Youngstown State rounded out the top 10, while Oakland, Miami, Akron, Ohio and USI were all in the top 15.
Nationally, Michigan State (13th), Butler (14th), Wisconsin (15th) and Notre Dame (16th) find themselves in the top 20 of the latest USTFCCCA Top 30 Men’s Coaches’ Poll. Michigan was ranked No. 26.
On the women’s side, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Wisconsin, Toledo and Ohio were the top five teams in the latest USTFCCCA Great Lakes Region Poll. Cincinnati, Bowling Green, Michigan, Ohio State and Xavier rounded out the top 10, while Central Michigan, Miami (OH), Indiana State, Indiana and Youngstown State were in the top 15.
Nationally, Notre Dame is ranked No. 5 in the latest USTFCCCA Top 30 Women’s Coaches’ Poll. Michigan State and Wisconsin are ranked No. 23 and No. 25, respectively.
The women’s six-kilometer race opens the competition Friday with a 10 a.m. (CST) start time, while the men’s 10k is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Admission costs are $10 at the gate and per NCAA host operations, no pets will be permitted.
Friday’s meet also is co-hosted by the Evansville Regional Sports Commission as well as the University of Evansville.
Governor’s group recommends ABA usage cap, rate changes as Medicaid costs rise
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, indiana Capitol Chronicle
Service quality and program management were also focuses.
Parents of autistic children — and ABA therapy providers — may soon encounter new usage limits, reimbursement rates and other changes as Indiana attempts to slow rising Medicaid spending.
About 20 recommendations, released Wednesday morning by a state-backed panel, could shape upcoming service shifts for thousands of Hoosiers.
“There will still be growth, just not as much, and it still protects the current ABA access for children and families who need it,” said Eric Miller, the deputy secretary and chief of staff for the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration.
Miller was among the nearly two-dozen state leaders, health professionals and others charged with evaluating “cost containment” strategies that “minimize” the negative impact on enrollees. Gov. Mike Braun directed FSSA to organize the working group in a February executive order.
Applied behavior analysis, or ABA, therapy is often used to improve communication and learning skills in children and young adults with autism or other developmental disorders.
Its popularity has surged in recent years. More than 8,000 Hoosiers rely on Medicaid to pay for ABA therapy, with most of them between three and eight years of age.
“This is something that’s very valuable — but at the same time, we know it’s unsustainable, the current cost trajectory,” said Miller. His agency, FSSA, administers the state’s Medicaid program.
Two of Miller’s own children have benefitted from ABA therapy.
Other recommendations are meant to boost quality and improve oversight, in response to a revealing federal audit.
Program updates on the way — again
Indiana’s Medicaid program began covering ABA services in 2016, spending about $21 million over the following year.
Expenditures peaked at $611 million in 2023, and dropped slightly to $445 million in 2024, after former Gov. Eric Holcomb’s administration set lower reimbursement rates.
His FSSA also moved to limit services.
A Medicaid State Plan Amendment, which was set to take effect April 1, would’ve capped treatment to 30 hours weekly for three years — retroactively. That would have cut off about half of the children using the service immediately.
Braun’s administration pulled that proposal.
“The governor decided this was cruel and unusual punishment, and we weren’t going to do that,” FSSA Secretary Mitch Roob said.
The agency filed another State Plan Amendment, with a July 1 effective date, that would’ve raised weekly limits for enrollees with higher needs — and applied prospectively. But it’s also getting scrapped.
FSSA plans to use Wednesday’s findings to draw up a new slate of changes.
Without intervention, costs could reach an estimated $825 million in 2029. Officials say that the state can’t afford that.
“The working group and the whole package of recommendations … is projected to reduce that annual growth rate (to) around 7%-8% instead of 13%,” Miller said.
There’s no dollar amount in anticipated savings available yet, however.
“We don’t make these choices in a vacuum, right? We provide services to 1.8 million people,” Roob said.
The agency plans to bring an ABA proposal — and a new Medicaid revenue forecast — to the State Budget Committee in December.
It could submit an updated State Plan Amendment to the federal government by the end of the year. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services must approve the modifications for them to take effect.
Key usage, rate changes
The working group recommended doing away with weekly limits and tiers of care on “comprehensive” ABA therapy, opting to instead pose a “lifetime” allocation of 4,000 hours.
That is fewer hours than the previous proposals would’ve allowed over a three-year period, but it is more flexible, Miller emphasized — and it’s not retroactive.
Once that cap is hit, enrollees would be eligible for up to 15 hours of “targeted” therapy per week.
Cuts to reimbursement rates for one-on-one therapy are likely, although the group didn’t agree on a specific number or range to endorse in the report.
“FSSA may reduce current rates for individual ABA therapy as deemed necessary to stay within the agency’s appropriated budget,” the recommendation reads.
Rates for group therapy, however, may be raised.
The state’s “significantly” lower reimbursement has driven low utilization, the working group found.
Hiking rates to “financially viable” levels would promote “one-on-one therapy time for children with the most significant needs, while providing a cost-effective, appropriate ‘step-down’ option for others.”
Decisions on rates are expected closer to FSSA’s presentation before the State Budget Committee next month, according to Miller.
Parents could also be required to get involved in their children’s therapy. The working group recommended nine to 18 hours of coaching or training per six-month authorization period.
“This therapy is usually done (outside) the home, which means the parent … can choose to be less engaged,” Roob said. “If the taxpayer’s spending that much money on helping this child, we believe that parent or caregiver needs to be engaged.”
Other recommendations seek to help children transition out of comprehensive care, when appropriate, and move on to lower-intensity or alternative forms of support.
“It’s (about) what’s next for the child … once they graduate (from) ABA therapy,” Miller said.
He recalled transition planning beginning “almost immediately” for his children, like if they’d continue being home-schooled or move on to public or private schools. Therapy activities can change depending on those goals, Miller noted.
FSSA has been following cohorts of enrollees who began therapy in 2020, according to the report, and found “no observable decline” in average weekly hours after three years of care.
Accreditation, location changes for providers
Indiana has more than ABA 320 therapy locations, per the report. The number of providers shot up by 25% between just 2023 and 2025.
The state currently doesn’t require any accreditation or licensure for ABA therapy organizations to bill Medicaid — or have any other limits on provider growth.
The working group agreed that should change.
“We really saw that there was an increased need for that oversight to ensure that the growing number of providers really are providing high-quality ABA therapy,” Miller said.
The report suggested requirements cover quality, service ratios and outcomes monitoring; risk management and patient safety; and more..
The state could use an existing accreditation body like the Autism Commission on Quality, or an external vendor. Miller said there have been “pre-conversations” with ACQ.
“What I would say is, over the next month or two, we’d be putting the details out there, and then it’s probably like a yearlong process, because we’ve got to go through all the providers,” he added.
The working group also took aim at areas with overly high concentrations of ABA sites in hopes of encouraging expansion in underserved communities.
Sites are mostly in urban locations in central and northern Indiana, with “noticeably fewer” providers southwest.
Under one recommendation, FSSA would request federal approval to temporarily block new providers or sites in designated counties from billing to Medicaid. The six-month moratorium could be extended.
The agency would “evaluate the implications” to avoid unwanted consequences, like providers establishing sites in neighboring counties that serve the same areas or starting in-home ABA services.
In the meantime, FSSA would create “incentives” for providers to expand to areas with fewer options. It’s unclear what form those strategies might take, however.
“To be determined,” FSSA spokesman Marcus Barlow wrote.
Private insurers took some heat in the report, too.
“Evidence suggests that, in general, private insurers pay below Medicaid rates for ABA,” working group members wrote. They asserted that’s creating “perverse incentives” for providers to prefer Medicaid-covered children. And, Medicaid has to pay the difference between the private and public rates for those who have both insurance types.
Braun’s administration should consider supporting legislation to require group health insurers to adopt a rate schedule above Medicaid rates, they recommended. Group plans are purchased by employers from state-regulated insurance carriers. However, 70% of Hoosiers with private insurance have employer-funded plans, which are regulated at the federal level.
The working group additionally recommended that Indiana beef up its third-party liability processes, which the Medicaid program uses to identify and collect payments from other responsible parties — like private insurance companies. The report emphasized that those insurers are the primary payer when coverage exists, with Medicaid being the “payer of last resort.”
Under another recommendation, FSSA would work with schools on their responsibilities. When ABA is medically necessary, Medicaid or private insurance funds it, but when the therapy is a behavioral support, schools fund it. State rules and federal law guarantee disabled children the right to a free and appropriate public education.
The report calls for FSSA to create a dedicated program office within the agency, which could implement many of the suggested strategies.
Right now, a trio of divisions hold ABA-related responsibilities, according to the report. One is the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning.
“Their job is to pay claims,” Roob said. “A claim comes in; they pay it, right? That’s what they’re told to do, right? They’re not told to be managing a program. They’re paying a claim.”
The new entity would have staff with clinical expertise, too.
There’s no set timeline. Miller said FSSA would start “as soon as we can find a qualified person” and build it out from there.
Several of the recommendations the program office could handle focus on improving service quality and fighting waste, fraud and abuse.
In a 2024 report, the U.S. Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General audited Indiana’s 2019 and 2020 ABA payments and found $56 million in improper payments and an additional $78 million in potentially improper payments. It recommended that Indiana refund more than $39 million to the federal government.
The audit cited problems with documentation, diagnostic evaluations, staff credentials, referrals and more. Cheaper group work was charged as more expensive individual therapies, or billed time included non-therapeutic activities like meal and bathroom breaks, for example.
FSSA is auditing the claims identified in the federal report and requiring refunds of any identified overpayments, according to the working group. The agency also initiated a program integrity review of Medicaid claims paid for ABA therapy from 2022 through 2025, and when it’s done, will make providers refund overpayments and go through compliance training.
Future Women of Criminal Justice Symposium
The Evansville Police Department is proud to partner with the EVSC’S Southern Indiana Career and Technical Center’s Criminal Justice class to host the second annual Future Women of Criminal Justice Symposium on November 18, 2025 beginning at 8:30am.
This event highlights the growing number of women pursuing careers in criminal justice, with 36 of the program’s 47 enrolled students being female, and recognizes the important contributions of women currently serving in the field.
Women are making a lasting impact across all areas of criminal justice. This symposium recognizes their hard work and achievements while inspiring students to follow their example and pursue meaningful careers in the field. Throughout the event, several distinguished speakers will share their experiences and insights on the significance of their roles as women in their professions. Scheduled speakers include:
• Evansville Deputy Mayor Lindsay Snyder
• Vanderburgh County Prosecutor Diana Moers
• Magistrate Emily Kemper
• Evansville Police Department Sergeant Shellie King
• Indiana State Police Forensic Scientist Mitzi Templeton
• Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Deputy Amanda Mentzel
Following the speaking program, a group photo will be taken, and attendees will enjoy a brunch prepared by SICTC’s Lunchbox. The Evansville Police Department is honored to support this event and to help encourage the future women of criminal justice as they prepare to serve and lead in their com
UE Hosts Expert Joshua Claybourn for Talk on Separation of Powers
EVANSVILLE, IND.Local attorney and historian Joshua Claybourn will deliver a talk, entitled, “Tariffs, Emergencies, and the Boundaries of Presidential Power,” at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 17. This event will take place at the University of Evansville (UE), Room 100 in the Koch Center on Engineering and Science (Koch 100).
Last week, the Supreme Court held oral arguments in the consolidated case of Learning Resources v. Trump and V.O.S. Selections v. Trump that examines the constitutionality of tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. Claybourn, an attorney with Jackson Kelly, is the coauthor of an amicus brief that brought together a broad coalition of major national legal figures who have urged the Supreme Court to uphold the separation of powers and strike down the unilateral imposition of tariffs by the president. He was in the room when the oral arguments took place in the Supreme Court on November 5.
“It’s hard to think of a more high-profile Supreme Court case this year than the tariff case,” said Professor Political Science Dr. Robert Dion. “What a terrific opportunity for our students to hear firsthand from a local attorney with a direct connection to this important decision about how the Constitution places limits on executive power.”
Claybourn’s talk is being sponsored by the UE Department of History, Politics, and Social Change. The event is free and open to the public. Any interested members of the community are encouraged to attend.
Unveiling of the new Vanderburgh County Therapeutic Work Relea
Unveiling of the new Vanderburgh County Therapeutic Work Release Litter Patrol van on Thursday, November 13, 2025 at 2 PM.
The Litter Patrol is the centerpiece of the Vanderburgh County Clean Streets Initiative. The program uses work release participants and defendants ordered to complete community service hours to staff the Litter Patrol under the supervision of an officer from Work Release.
This initiative was made possible thanks to generous support from the Vanderburgh County Solid Waste District and the Vanderburgh County Council.
Additional support that helped make this initiative possible came from Republic Services, the Vanderburgh County Commissioners, and the Evansville City Council and Mayor’s Office.