Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in Union climb to $864 in 2024

Providers in Union billed Medicaid for $864 in the Medicine Services and Procedures category during 2024, as reported by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This reflects a 20.2% jump from 2023, when claims for the same category totaled $719.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program administered by states and financed through a partnership between federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and those with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the U.S. healthcare landscape.

Shifts in local Medicaid billing levels reflect how taxpayer-funded health care dollars are distributed at the community level.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” category encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed services organized by care type, based on standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. Each billing code used for this analysis falls into one category, defined by consistent prefixes and numeric sequences, which allows related services to be grouped appropriately, eliminating double counting and maintaining accurate year-over-year rankings.

Although Medicaid expenditures grew in multiple categories, Medicine Services and Procedures was fifth among Medicaid payment totals in Union for 2024.

Statewide in West Virginia, the Medicine Services and Procedures category ranked sixth for Medicaid payments in 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments for the Medicine Services and Procedures category in Union grew by $7,104, representing an 89.2% gain. Increases surged in certain years, with significant year-over-year growth in 2023 and 2021.

While Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures were made throughout the city, most payments came from a small number of ZIP codes. For 2024, the ZIP code 24983 accounted for the full $864 billed for this category, meaning 100% of Union’s Medicaid payments tied to Medicine Services and Procedures originated there last year.

Spending within the Medicine Services and Procedures category was focused on a few specific billing codes.

For context, Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in Union surged 20.2% from 2023 to 2024, while overall Medicaid claim categories in the city saw a 27.1% fluctuation for the same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up around 18% of nationwide health care spending and rising steeply from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This surge reflects approximately 40% growth over several years, largely due to greater enrollment and increased use of services tied to the pandemic and its aftermath.

Recent federal budget measures enacted under the Trump administration proposed sharp cuts to federal Medicaid spending and a restructuring of the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion during the next 10 years and includes initiatives such as work requirements and greater cost-sharing, potentially decreasing funding and access for certain beneficiaries. These adjustments could transfer additional costs to states and restrict the rate of federal support, even as Medicaid continues providing for tens of millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are shown for context within the category. Category totals and rankings in this article are based on standardized service groupings rather than individual billing codes.

Information in this article was obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The source data can be found here.