Forest Medicaid spending for state codes climbs to $4,233,044 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Forest billed $4,233,044 for services under the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category, based on data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 107.1% jump from 2023, when providers reported $2,044,164 in claims under this service type.

Medicaid, a state-administered public health insurance program funded in partnership by state and federal governments, serves low-income people and households, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it one of the nation’s largest health care programs.

Since taxpayer dollars fund Medicaid, local billing fluctuations illustrate how health care resources are distributed in a given community.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” category includes Medicaid-billed services grouped by type of care, based on defined HCPCS and CPT code ranges. This analysis assigned each billing code to a sole service category by applying consistent code prefixes and number ranges, enabling similarly classified services to be tracked together while ensuring rankings are accurate and claims are not counted twice.

While overall Medicaid spending increased in several categories, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies accounted for the highest total Medicaid reimbursement in Forest in 2024.

Statewide in Mississippi, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies also received the most in Medicaid payments in 2024.

During the five years through 2024, Forest’s Medicaid payments tied to this category climbed by $4,217,021, or 26318%. Certain years, including 2022 and 2021, saw sharper year-over-year increases for this spending.

The distribution of Medicaid payments for this category spanned the city, but the majority of payments came from a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 39074 alone contributed $4,233,044—the entire amount billed for this service group—making it responsible for 100% of local Medicaid claims in the category that year.

Within the category, Medicaid reimbursements focused on just a handful of billing codes.

To compare, Medicaid reimbursements in Forest tied to this category grew by 107.1% from 2023 to 2024, compared to a 23.3% rise in all Medicaid claim types filed within the city during that period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. This accounted for around 18% of total U.S. health spending, demonstrating considerable growth from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 health crisis began.

This increase amounts to around 40% growth in a few years, spurred primarily by expanded enrollment and increased service use during and after the pandemic.

Budget bills passed during the Trump administration included sizable proposed reductions to federal Medicaid outlays and structural changes. Laws such as the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, are projected to trim federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and introduce work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These policies could cut coverage and payments for certain Medicaid recipients, shifting more expenses to states and potentially capping future federal support while Medicaid remains critical for millions of Americans.

Note: HCPCS codes are included for category context. Totals and category ranks reported are based on assigning billing codes to distinct service categories using standardized groupings, not by individual billing codes.

Source data referenced in this article is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Original data is available here.