In 2024, Medicaid providers in Lancaster billed $3,320,465 for services under the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 55.7% increase over 2023, when providers submitted $2,133,039 for similar services.
Medicaid, run by individual states and funded by both federal and state governments, provides health coverage to low-income people, seniors, children, and those with disabilities. It ranks among the largest components of the U.S. health care system.
Since Medicaid relies on taxpayer funding, trends in local billing amounts indicate how public health resources are being used in the community.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category refers to a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by care type, organized by standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. Every code was assigned to a unique service group for this review, preventing overlapping counts and ensuring consistent annual comparisons.
While Medicaid spending increased across several service areas, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the third-largest Medicaid category by payment amount in Lancaster in 2024.
Statewide in Ohio, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked second in total Medicaid payments that year.
Between the five years leading to 2024, Lancaster’s Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment climbed by $1,659,142, or 99.9%. The largest year-to-year increases took place in 2023 and 2022.
Spending attributed to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services was distributed across the city but was heavily concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 43130 accounted for the entire $3,320,465 total. That ZIP made up 100% of the area’s Medicaid spending for this service in Lancaster during the year.
Among the services in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, a small group of individual billing codes were responsible for the majority of Medicaid payments.
To compare, while payments tied to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment grew by 55.7% in Lancaster from 2023 to 2024, overall Medicaid claim categories in the city experienced a 10.2% rise in that same period.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data show total combined federal and state Medicaid spending was roughly $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. That accounted for about 18% of national health expenditures, up significantly from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This change reflects around a 40% spending increase over a few years, mostly due to more people enrolling and higher demand for services during and following the pandemic.
Recent Trump administration legislation has introduced measures to cut federal Medicaid funding and change the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade. New provisions, such as work requirements and more cost-sharing, may lower both beneficiary coverage and federal funding, potentially shifting additional costs to states even as Medicaid continues covering millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $1,661,322 | -1.3% |
| 2021 | $1,515,030 | -8.8% |
| 2022 | $1,433,765 | -5.4% |
| 2023 | $2,133,038 | 48.8% |
| 2024 | $3,320,465 | 55.7% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Evaluation and Management | $5,725,455 | 24.5% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $4,478,288 | 19.1% |
| 3 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $3,320,465 | 14.2% |
| 4 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $2,691,689 | 11.5% |
| 5 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $2,333,992 | 1<0.1% |
| 6 | Radiology Procedures | $1,990,779 | 8.5% |
| 7 | Dental Services | $825,306 | 3.5% |
| 8 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $761,087 | 3.3% |
| 9 | Surgery | $713,708 | 3.1% |
| 10 | Procedures / Professional Services | $327,851 | 1.4% |
| 11 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $122,270 | 0.5% |
| 12 | Vision Services | $51,097 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $24,934 | 0.1% |
| 14 | Durable Medical Equipment | $8,872 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $8,420 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Enteral and Parenteral Therapy | $6,213 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $2,223 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $842 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Temporary Codes | $259 | <0.1% |
| 20 | Outpatient PPS | $142 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Anesthesia | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,520,680 | 62 |
| H0036 | Comm psy face-face per 15min | $490,513 | 127 |
| H0006 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $462,945 | 175 |
| H2019 | Ther behav svc, per 15 min | $365,006 | 59 |
| H0005 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $224,725 | 90 |
| H0038 | Self-help/peer svc per 15min | $94,334 | 18 |
| H2017 | Psysoc rehab svc, per 15 min | $91,757 | 18 |
| H0048 | Spec coll non-blood:a/d test | $70,502 | 80 |
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.
