Indiana Opioid Settlement Funds: Split, Uses, and Oversight

Indiana’s opioid settlement funds, more than $1 billion secured from drug manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies, are divided evenly between state government and local governments under Indiana Code 4-6-15 and paid out in at least two installments a year over roughly 18 years.¹ Most of the money is restricted to treatment, prevention, and recovery programs, and none of it goes directly to individual residents.

How the Money Is Split

House Enrolled Act 1193, signed by Governor Holcomb in March 2022, set a 50/50 state-local split and the formula for local shares.² Indiana Code 4-6-15-4 breaks the money into four accounts:³

35% state abatement, restricted to treatment, education, and prevention for opioid use disorder and co-occurring conditions. The Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) manages this share.
35% local abatement, distributed to cities, counties, and towns under a weighted formula tied to each community’s opioid impact, and restricted to evidence-based treatment, prevention, and care.
15% state unrestricted, available for oversight, administration, and broader opioid-related programming.
15% local unrestricted, distributed by the same weighted formula but with fewer limits on how the money is spent.

The weighting is set out in the settlement documents rather than the statute. Two rules noticeably shape what a given community actually receives. First, any city or town whose annual abatement share would come to less than $5,000 receives nothing directly; that money flows instead to the county where the city or town sits.³ Second, cities, counties, and towns that opted out of the national settlement receive nothing, and their would-be shares are redistributed to the communities that opted in. Localities that hired their own attorneys and litigated separately keep a share, but their legal fees are deducted from their settlement payments.⁴

What the Money Can Pay For

Spending has to line up with the settlement agreements’ approved opioid remediation uses. A shorter list of “Core Strategies” gets funding priority, and a broader list of “Approved Uses” covers the rest.⁵

The Core Strategies include naloxone distribution and training for first responders, schools, families, and community groups; medication-assisted treatment, with a focus on uninsured residents and provider education; screening and wrap-around care for pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorders and for babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome; recovery support such as residential and outpatient treatment, recovery housing, warm hand-off programs, and help with housing, transportation, job training, and childcare; evidence-based treatment for people in the criminal justice system and those leaving incarceration; prevention work including media campaigns, school programs, prescriber training, drug disposal, and pre-arrest diversion; syringe service programs with wrap-around supports; and data collection to identify which strategies are working.⁵

The broader Approved Uses list also covers telehealth expansion, mobile intervention teams, trauma treatment, withdrawal management, workforce development for addiction professionals, and fellowships for addiction medicine specialists.⁵ Syringe service programs are separately authorized under Indiana Code 16-41-7.5.⁶

One prohibition matters at the budgeting stage: abatement funds cannot be used to replace existing state or local spending. A county cannot accept settlement money and redirect its current addiction-services budget elsewhere. The settlement dollars have to represent new or expanded investment. The Indiana Commission to Combat Substance Use Disorder maintains a separate list of items disallowed under the settlement’s Exhibit E.¹ Local spending also has to follow state procurement procedures and the uniform standards published by the State Board of Accounts.²

Can Individuals or Families Get a Direct Payment?

No. Indiana’s opioid settlement funds do not include payments to individuals or families harmed by opioid addiction. The settlement agreements and Indiana Code 4-6-15 send all of the money into state and local government accounts for abatement programs.⁴ People affected by opioids may benefit indirectly through expanded treatment, recovery housing, naloxone access, and other funded services, but there is no personal-claim process against these funds.

Who Oversees the Money

Several agencies share oversight. FSSA, working through the Division of Mental Health and Addiction and with the Indiana Department of Health, built the framework for the state’s 35% abatement share and administers grants for treatment, harm reduction, peer support, and recovery housing.⁷ The Attorney General’s Office, which negotiated the settlements, handles distribution of the local shares; local abatement and local unrestricted funds are appropriated through that office.³ Counties and municipalities decide their own priorities, and many have set up opioid task forces or advisory boards that pull together public health officials, law enforcement, and community leaders to review proposals.

How to See What Your Community Spent

Every entity receiving settlement money has to track its spending and file an annual report with FSSA by a deadline the agency sets. FSSA compiles the state and local data into a report submitted to the General Assembly by October 1.³ Local governments get an electronic reporting form each August to document their expenditures. The compiled annual report and a detailed local-government spending spreadsheet are posted on the state’s recovery website, so residents can look up exactly how their county, city, or town used the money.¹

1
Indiana State Government. Indiana Commission to Combat Substance Use Disorder – Opioid Settlement
2
Indiana General Assembly. 2025 Annual Opioid Settlement Report
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 4-6-15-4 – Distribution of Funds Received From Litigation Settlement Use of Funds
4
Indiana State Government. Opioid Settlement and Litigation
5
Indiana State Government. List of Opioid Remediation Uses
6
Justia. Indiana Code Title 16-41-7.5 – Communicable Disease Syringe Exchange Program
7
Indiana Family and Social Services Administration. 2024 Annual Opioid Settlement Report