Bethesda Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures reach $755,395 in 2024

Bethesda Medicaid providers billed $755,395 for Medicine Services and Procedures in 2024, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This figure reflects an 11.1% increase compared with 2023, when $680,171 in claims were submitted for these services.

Medicaid, one of the largest U.S. health care programs, is jointly administered by federal and state governments and covers low-income individuals, families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. Funding comes from both federal and state sources. More details are at the Commonwealth Fund.

Local Medicaid billing patterns, funded by taxpayers, illustrate how public health dollars support community care.

The Medicine Services and Procedures category encompasses services identified by standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings, classified by the type of medical care delivered. Each billing code was categorized by prefix and numeric range, ensuring accurate year-to-year comparisons and eliminating duplicate counts for this analysis.

While Medicaid spending increased in several categories, Medicine Services and Procedures ranked as the fourth largest by total Medicaid payments in Bethesda in 2024.

Statewide in Maryland, this category placed third for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in Bethesda climbed $1,725, a 0.2% rise. Specific years, including 2021 and 2023, saw faster spending growth.

Spending for Medicine Services and Procedures was distributed throughout Bethesda, but most payments were concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 20817 saw $528,286 in Medicaid payments, 20814 recorded $225,799, and 20816 had $1,308 for this category. Together, these three ZIP codes represented all Medicaid payments tied to Medicine Services and Procedures in the city for the year.

A small group of billing codes accounted for most Medicaid payments within the Medicine Services and Procedures category.

Over the same period, Bethesda’s Medicaid payments in this category increased by 11.1%. For context, all Medicaid claim categories in the city rose by 8.4%.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data show that federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, or around 18% of total U.S. health care spending—up from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This marks a rise of nearly 40% in a few years, largely due to increased enrollment and greater benefit use during and following the pandemic.

Recent federal budget measures under the Trump administration have brought forward plans to reduce federal Medicaid funding and restructure parts of the program, such as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed into law in 2025. This legislation is expected to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funding over a decade, adding elements like work requirements and higher cost-sharing that could reduce funding and access for certain beneficiaries. These policies may shift a larger share of Medicaid costs to state budgets as federal matching growth slows, though program enrollment remains high.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided for reference inside the category. Category totals and rankings are based on standardized service groupings, not individual billing codes.

This article relies on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The underlying source can be accessed here.