Long Beach Medicaid spending for state agency-designated codes jumps to $1.45 million in 2024

Providers in Long Beach billed $1,453,093 for services assigned to the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category in 2024, as detailed in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This marked a 42% rise compared with 2023, when $1,023,228 was billed for the same classification of Medicaid claims.

Medicaid operates as a public health insurance program managed at the state level and supported by both federal and state governments. It provides coverage to individuals and families with low income, as well as seniors, children, and people with disabilities, establishing itself as a major component of the U.S. health care system.

Because public funds pay for Medicaid, fluctuations in community billing offer a window into local uses of health care dollars.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” designation covers a segment of Medicaid-billed services categorized according to standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this report, each billing code was allocated to only one service area using uniform code prefixes and numeric spans, ensuring related services could be assessed collectively without overlap and with accurate historical comparisons.

While overall Medicaid expenditures rose in several service classes, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies led all Long Beach categories for total Medicaid outlays in 2024.

Across Mississippi, this same category also ranked first in total Medicaid payments for 2024.

In the five years through 2024, Long Beach Medicaid payments connected to the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category rose $15,004, or 1%. The pace of growth accelerated periodically, with substantial increases seen in 2021 and 2022.

Though services in this category were utilized citywide, spending remained heavily concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 39560 alone saw Medicaid payments for the category reach $1,453,092. In total, the single largest ZIP code was responsible for 100% of the Medicaid payments in this service group in Long Beach for the year.

Additionally, a small group of billing codes within the category accounted for most Medicaid expenditures.

To put this trend in perspective, Long Beach’s Medicaid payments connected to the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category climbed by 42% between 2024 and 2023. This compares to a 4.4% shift seen across all Medicaid categories in the city over the same interval.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. This accounted for about 18% of national health spending, up from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This rise equals approximately 40% over several years, largely fueled by greater enrollment and increased demand during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget laws under the Trump administration introduced major proposals to reduce federal contributions to Medicaid and reorganize the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is estimated to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over 10 years, implementing requirements and cost-sharing policies that could lower coverage and shift the burden to states, even as the program continues to serve tens of millions nationwide.

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.