Case Study: How Indiana Addresses its Health Care Workforce Challenges

Given the numerous agencies and sectors in a state that share some responsibility for workforce development, it is important for state agencies and organizations to coordinate their efforts. Indiana has made enhancing its healthcare workforce a key priority and uses cross-agency collaboration as an important strategy in its efforts. Indiana has achieved a number of successes to meet specific health care workforce development needs, such as providing Medicaid reimbursement for community health worker (CHW) services, a pre-nursing certificate pathway for certified nursing assistants (CNAs), and a framework for comprehensive review of state licensing. Many of these successes have been supported by the Indiana Governor’s Health Workforce Council, a cross-agency funded body that serves as a forum to convene stakeholders, establish priorities, and develop policy recommendations. This case study highlights how Indiana has utilized these types of cross-agency approaches to bolster health care workforce development.