Ferndale sees 9.9% rise in Medicaid payments for National Codes in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Ferndale billed $2,988,545 for services classified in the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This reflected a 9.9% increase from 2023, when $2,719,347 was billed for the same service type.

Medicaid, a state-administered public health insurance program jointly funded by federal and state governments, provides coverage to low-income people, children, seniors, and individuals with disabilities. It represents a major portion of the U.S. health care infrastructure.

Since Medicaid payments are taxpayer-funded, shifts in local Medicaid billing reflect how health care resources are distributed in the community.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” category includes a collection of Medicaid services defined by specific types of care, organized using standard HCPCS and CPT code groups. To conduct this review, each code was grouped under one service category using uniform code prefixes and number ranges, enabling related services to be tracked and accurately compared across years without duplication.

Among the various Medicaid spending categories, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies ranked as the highest by total payments in Ferndale for 2024.

Statewide in Washington, this category also led all other service categories in overall Medicaid payments in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Ferndale’s Medicaid payments for the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category rose by $1,549,582, or 107.7%. Significant annual increases occurred during certain years, particularly in 2020 and 2021.

Within Ferndale, Medicaid spending for the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category was spread citywide but highly concentrated in certain ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 98248 accounted for $2,988,544 of total Medicaid payments in this category, representing 100% of such payments in Ferndale that year.

For this category, a small number of billing codes were responsible for the majority of Medicaid payments.

To highlight local trends, between 2023 and 2024 Medicaid payments for this category in Ferndale grew 9.9%, compared to a 3.1% increase across all claim categories in the city during that time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, equaling around 18% of national health spending. That is an increase from the roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.

This marks approximately 40% growth over several years, mainly caused by broader program enrollment and increased utilization during and following the pandemic.

Recent changes in federal budget law introduced under the Trump administration include major efforts to cut federal Medicaid spending and revise the program. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid support by over $1 trillion in the next 10 years and adds elements such as work mandates and more cost-sharing responsibility, which could limit some beneficiaries’ coverage. These reforms are projected to transfer greater cost obligations to states and potentially slow the expansion of federal assistance while Medicaid continues to provide insurance for tens of millions of Americans.

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.