Bethlehem’s Medicaid spending on Medicine Services and Procedures reaches $12M in 2024

In 2024, Bethlehem Medicaid providers submitted $12,046,051 in claims for the Medicine Services and Procedures category, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total represents a 15.2% rise from 2023, when claims for the same services totaled $10,452,593.

Medicaid is a state-operated health insurance program funded by both the federal and state governments. It serves low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest components of the national health care system.

Since Medicaid is financed by taxpayers, local changes in billing levels demonstrate how a community’s health spending is distributed.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” group covers a range of Medicaid-billed services categorized by the specific care provided, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this analysis, each billing code fell into one service category using uniform code prefixes and numeric ranges, enabling an accurate look at related services over time while avoiding double counting.

While there were increases across multiple Medicaid service groups, Medicine Services and Procedures was the second-highest category by payment amount in Bethlehem for 2024.

Across Pennsylvania, Medicine Services and Procedures placed third among Medicaid payment categories in 2024.

Over the five years preceding 2024, Bethlehem’s Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures rose by $10,974,617, or 1,024.3%. Growth was especially strong during specific periods, with pronounced annual increases noted in 2021 and 2020.

Although care in the Medicine Services and Procedures category was available across the city, payments were primarily concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, the largest Medicaid payment totals in this category came from ZIP code 18020 ($6,043,738), 18015 ($2,847,695), and 18017 ($2,329,981). Combined, these 3 ZIP codes accounted for 93.2% of all related Medicaid payments in Bethlehem for the year.

Medicaid reimbursements in the Medicine Services and Procedures group were also focused on a small selection of billing codes.

To compare, Medicaid payments related to Medicine Services and Procedures in Bethlehem climbed 15.2% from 2023 to 2024, versus a 6% increase across all Medicaid claim categories in the city for that same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, joint federal and state Medicaid expenditures hit about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up nearly 18% of total national health spending, a sharp jump from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase indicates about 40% growth over just a few years, largely spurred by expanded enrollment and greater health care utilization during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws from the Trump administration have included major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid spending and change the structure of the program. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over the next ten years. It implements policies such as work requirements and increased cost sharing, which could limit coverage and funding for some recipients. These changes are expected to shift additional costs onto states and restrict the growth of federal Medicaid support, despite the program’s ongoing coverage 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.