Simpson Medicaid payments for alcohol and drug abuse treatment up 7.5% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Simpson billed $3,805,259 for services listed under the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount represents a 7.5% rise compared with 2023, when billings totaled $3,541,119 for the same category.

Medicaid, a joint program funded by state and federal governments, is overseen by individual states and covers low-income families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, making it a major segment of the U.S. health care system. More information is available at the Commonwealth Fund.

Since Medicaid funding comes from taxpayers, shifts in local billing patterns reflect how public health care resources are distributed in each community.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” classification refers to a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by care type, based on established HCPCS and CPT code groupings. Service codes were allocated to a single service category using uniform prefixes and number ranges, supporting analysis of similar services without overlapping data and ensuring accurate year-to-year comparisons.

Payments for Medicaid services increased in several areas, but Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the top category in Simpson by total Medicaid spend for 2024.

Statewide, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was also the highest category by total Medicaid payments in Pennsylvania in 2024.

Over the five years leading up to 2024, Simpson saw Medicaid payments for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category climb by $3,453,184, or 980.8%. Sharp annual increases were reported during some periods, particularly in 2021 and 2022.

Though spending was distributed across Simpson, payments in this category were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, the ZIP code 18407 accounted for $3,805,258 in Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, representing 100% of the total from this category in the city for the year.

Medicaid spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was focused on a few main billing codes within the category.

Comparatively, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Medicaid payments in Simpson grew 7.5% between 2024 and 2023, while all Medicaid claim categories in the city experienced a 4.6% increase in the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joint federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up almost 18% of all health expenses nationally, up significantly from around $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth amounts to an increase of about 40% within a few years, largely due to expanded participation and increased utilization during and after the pandemic.

Federal budget bills during the Trump administration have included major proposals to scale back federal Medicaid funding and revamp the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is projected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. It introduces measures like work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which could limit access to coverage and decrease funding for some enrollees. These changes are anticipated to shift more financial responsibility to states and limit federal Medicaid growth, even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of people.

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.