Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows that providers in Dunbar billed $1,524,411 to Medicaid for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services during 2024. This was a 103.6% rise compared with the $748,712 in claims submitted for those services in 2023.
Medicaid, operated by the states and primarily funded by both federal and state governments, offers health coverage to low-income individuals and families, children, seniors and people with disabilities, making it a major component of the U.S. health care sector.
With Medicaid spending sourced from taxpayer dollars, fluctuations in local billing reflect how public funds are distributed within a community’s health system.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” classification covers a set of Medicaid-billed services defined by the care type, based on specific HCPCS and CPT code groupings. Billing codes were assigned to just one service category for this analysis using uniform code prefixes and numerical ranges, grouping similar services together to prevent double counting and to maintain consistent ranking over time.
Across all Medicaid service categories, spending increased, and Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the second largest by payment total in Dunbar for 2024.
Statewide, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category was ranked third in West Virginia by total Medicaid payments paid out in 2024.
From five years before 2024, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Dunbar rose by $1,144,072, a 300.8% jump. Periods of faster growth occurred, notably in 2022 and 2020, with year-over-year increases seen during those times.
Spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was distributed across Dunbar, though payments were concentrated in specific ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 25064 accounted for all $1,524,411 in Medicaid payments connected to this category, making it responsible for 100% of payments citywide in this segment that year.
Within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, Medicaid reimbursement was focused on a relatively small number of unique billing codes.
Comparatively, Dunbar experienced a 103.6% increase in Medicaid payments related to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment from 2023 to 2024, versus a 10.9% overall change across all Medicaid claim types in the city for the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, collectively, federal and state Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up approximately 18% of all U.S. health expenditures, up significantly from roughly $613.5 billion prior to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
This marks a nearly 40% increase over several years, largely attributed to higher enrollment and increased utilization during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget actions during the Trump administration included substantial plans for cutting federal Medicaid funding and altering the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal Medicaid outlays by more than $1 trillion in the next 10 years, while introducing new requirements like work mandates and increased cost-sharing that could reduce eligibility and financial support for some groups. These measures are set to shift greater financial responsibility to states and could curb the rate of federal Medicaid spending growth, despite the program’s continued coverage of tens of millions.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $380,339 | 91.9% |
| 2021 | $397,619 | 4.5% |
| 2022 | $1,277,364 | 221.3% |
| 2023 | $748,712 | -41.4% |
| 2024 | $1,524,411 | 103.6% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $4,835,420 | 54.6% |
| 2 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $1,524,411 | 17.2% |
| 3 | Durable Medical Equipment | $828,273 | 9.4% |
| 4 | Procedures / Professional Services | $459,122 | 5.2% |
| 5 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $323,969 | 3.7% |
| 6 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $319,234 | 3.6% |
| 7 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $283,281 | 3.2% |
| 8 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $99,880 | 1.1% |
| 9 | Dental Services | $96,565 | 1.1% |
| 10 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $52,884 | 0.6% |
| 11 | Evaluation and Management | $27,721 | 0.3% |
| 12 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $2,207 | <0.1% |
| 13 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $18 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H0004 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,073,569 | 38 |
| H0038 | Self-help/peer svc per 15min | $377,100 | 12 |
| H0032 | Mh svc plan dev by non-md | $56,193 | 17 |
| H0031 | Mh health assess by non-md | $17,547 | 8 |
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.
