INDIANAPOLIS -- Two Indiana mothers caring for sons with brain injuries are championing a push to bring more services to Indiana after a study found the state is seriously lacking.

A new report from nonprofit organization Generations Project estimates Indiana taxpayers spend $14 million to $18 million a year in Medicaid costs to send brain injury patients to be treated out of state, 6News' Kara Kenney reported.

Becky McNichols' son, Scott McNichols, was an active 24-year-old when he ran into a tree going 30 mph on a snowboard. June Holt's son, Joe Holt, was 25 years old when he developed a brain tumor and had to undergo radiation.

Both mothers said they sent their sons out of state, to Michigan and Illinois, respectively, due to the lack of services for brain injury patients in Indiana.

"We don't have the resources, we do not have the housing, we don't have the medical community to support brain injuries," McNichols said.

Besides the thousands the family had paid for her son's care, McNichols estimated that Indiana paid more than $250,000 in Medicaid costs for the treatment in Michigan.

Holt, who helped author the Generations Project's report, said she encountered a similar situation.

"These services don't exist in Indiana ... It's very fragmented," Holt said. "There's no system of care for people with brain injuries. I'd like to see a system of care for brain injury that would include all the services so that no one would have to go out of state for those services."

6News took questions to the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration, which oversees the Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning.

"Well, we don't believe there is a lack of brain injury services in Indiana. We have a specialized Medicaid waiver. In the past year, we have increased the eligibility," said spokesman Marcus Barlow.

Kenney asked Barlow why the state spent $18 million on services out of state, instead of just providing them in Indiana.

"Well, when we can provide services in Indiana, we do. But for some of the more specialized services, especially for traumatic brain injury, extended care, those services aren't offered in Indiana. We have to send patients elsewhere and fund that," he said. "As the government, we're not going to go build hospitals. We're just going to fund the care."

Both mothers will make their case before the Health Finance Commission this fall in the hopes the Legislature will step in to study and help those with brain injuries.

"We need some laws changed, we need some studies done and we need a change of attitude," Holt said.

FSSA maintains that such a study is not necessary because the agency already monitors and tracks brain injury services in Indiana.

More Information: Lessons From Home Report