Belfry Medicaid spending on medicine services surges to $15,971 in 2024

Providers in Belfry submitted $15,971 in Medicaid claims for Medicine Services and Procedures in 2024, figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show. This represents a 497% increase over 2023, when the total for the same service group was $2,675.

Medicaid operates as a federal-state partnership, offering public health insurance to low-income residents, seniors, children, and those with disabilities. The program is one of the largest elements of the United States health care system, funded jointly by federal and state governments.

Because tax dollars support Medicaid payments, shifts in billing at the local level signal how public health money is being allocated across communities.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” category gathers Medicaid-billed services based on type of medical care, grouped by standard HCPCS and CPT code sets. This analysis matches each billing code to a single category using core code identifiers and ranges, grouping similar services for review and preventing overlap or repeated tallies as categories are compared over time.

Spending on Medicine Services and Procedures was among several growing categories, placing third in Belfry by Medicaid payment totals in 2024.

Statewide in Kentucky, Medicine Services and Procedures was the fourth highest category by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Between 2019 and 2024, Medicaid payments in Belfry for Medicine Services and Procedures increased by $13,940, reflecting 686.2% growth. There were notable spikes during specific years, especially in 2022 and 2020, when spending rapidly accelerated.

Most Medicaid dollars for Medicine Services and Procedures in Belfry were concentrated in just a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 41514 comprised the full $15,971 total for this category, representing 100% of the payments tied to Medicine Services and Procedures in Belfry that year.

Payments also concentrated within a small group of specific billing codes, even within the broad Medicine Services and Procedures category.

For additional context, Medicine Services and Procedures spending in Belfry climbed by 497% from 2023 to 2024, while the cumulative change across all Medicaid claim categories in the city during this period was 11.5%.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total Medicaid expenditures by federal and state sources reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up roughly 18% of all U.S. health spending. This marks a significant climb from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The change amounts to a 40% increase over a few years, primarily driven by expanded enrollment and utilization associated with the pandemic and its aftermath.

Recent federal budget actions under the Trump administration have included major proposals to lower federal Medicaid spending and reshape the program’s funding. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to trim federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade and establishes work requirements and higher cost-sharing for some participants. These measures may reduce coverage for certain groups and restrict growth in federal funding, shifting more responsibility to states even as Medicaid continues to serve tens of millions across the country.

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.