In 2024, Lakewood Medicaid providers billed $38,350,712 for services listed under Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The total represented a 15.6% rise over 2023, when claims for the same category amounted to $33,180,868.
Medicaid is a public health insurance plan operated by the states and financed in partnership by federal and state governments. The program supports low-income individuals and families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities, making it one of the largest programs in the U.S. health care landscape.
Since Medicaid funding is sourced from taxpayer dollars, fluctuations in local billing levels indicate how communities are directing their public health spending.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category represents a set of Medicaid-billed services determined by the type of care rendered, according to recognized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. This review assigned each billing code to a single service classification using established code prefixes and numeric segments, which enables the grouping of related services and avoids repeat counts while maintaining the accuracy of trends and rankings.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment placed second among Medicaid service categories in Lakewood in terms of total payments for 2024, reflecting growth seen in various categories.
Statewide in Colorado, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the third-highest Medicaid payment category for 2024.
Over the five years ending in 2024, Lakewood’s Medicaid payments for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category rose by $14,656,308, or 61.9%. Periods of more rapid growth occurred, especially with strong annual increases in 2023 and 2020.
While these payments were distributed citywide, most were concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, those with the highest Medicaid spending for alcohol and drug abuse treatment included 80235 with $30,043,876, 80226 at $5,837,429, and 80214 with $1,087,404. Combined, these 3 ZIP codes represented 96.4% of all Medicaid dollars for this care in Lakewood throughout the year.
Medicaid payments within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category were also focused among relatively few billing codes.
For comparison, Lakewood’s Medicaid spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment rose by 15.6% between 2024 and 2023, outpacing the 2.6% overall change for all Medicaid claim categories in the city during that time.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid spending totaled roughly $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up about 18% of national health spending. That is up sharply from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The increase amounts to growth of around 40% within a few years, mainly due to expanded eligibility and greater service use during and following the pandemic period.
Recent federal budget legislation signed during the Trump administration has advanced significant cuts to federal Medicaid funding and altered the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over a decade and brings new policies such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing that may limit coverage and funding for some recipients. These measures are projected to increase the financial burden on states and restrict federal Medicaid expansion, even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $23,694,403 | 11.7% |
| 2021 | $24,294,905 | 2.5% |
| 2022 | $25,931,897 | 6.7% |
| 2023 | $33,180,868 | 28% |
| 2024 | $38,350,711 | 15.6% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $91,665,247 | 54% |
| 2 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $38,350,711 | 22.6% |
| 3 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $9,136,535 | 5.4% |
| 4 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $6,032,813 | 3.6% |
| 5 | Evaluation and Management | $5,430,895 | 3.2% |
| 6 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $3,279,471 | 1.9% |
| 7 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $2,475,764 | 1.5% |
| 8 | Enteral and Parenteral Therapy | $2,335,384 | 1.4% |
| 9 | Radiology Procedures | $2,219,088 | 1.3% |
| 10 | Durable Medical Equipment | $2,008,746 | 1.2% |
| 11 | Surgery | $1,778,598 | 1% |
| 12 | Dental Services | $1,605,500 | 0.9% |
| 13 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $1,560,701 | 0.9% |
| 14 | Vision Services | $1,504,753 | 0.9% |
| 15 | Procedures / Professional Services | $176,692 | 0.1% |
| 16 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $78,956 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $40,483 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $30,256 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Hearing Services | $29,365 | <0.1% |
| 20 | Temporary Codes | $27,357 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Anesthesia | $7,009 | <0.1% |
| 22 | Miscellaneous Medical Services | $1,470 | <0.1% |
| 23 | Diagnostic Radiology Services | $0 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H0038 | Self-help/peer svc per 15min | $30,826,205 | 83 |
| H2014 | Skills train and dev, 15 min | $1,541,413 | 42 |
| H2021 | Com wrap-around sv, 15 min | $1,464,968 | 57 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,162,603 | 20 |
| H0005 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $655,644 | 62 |
| H0020 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $507,700 | 11 |
| H2019 | Ther behav svc, per 15 min | $481,960 | 38 |
| H0023 | Alcohol and/or drug outreach | $462,057 | 22 |
| H0004 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $430,243 | 71 |
| H0011 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $346,416 | 5 |
| H0001 | Alcohol and/or drug assess | $125,722 | 47 |
| H2023 | Supported employ, per 15 min | $114,856 | 12 |
| H0006 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $88,206 | 50 |
| H0016 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $49,300 | 1 |
| H0032 | Mh svc plan dev by non-md | $45,762 | 44 |
| H0046 | Mental health service, nos | $21,213 | 3 |
| H2036 | A/d tx program, per diem | $12,545 | 2 |
| H0002 | Alcohol and/or drug screenin | $5,836 | 12 |
| H0031 | Mh health assess by non-md | $4,937 | 2 |
| H0025 | Alcohol and/or drug preventi | $3,114 | 1 |
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.
