Medicaid payments for alcohol and drug abuse treatment increase 1.3% in Bellingham in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Bellingham billed $5,335,409 for services within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending data show. This amount represents a 1.3% rise from the $5,268,803 billed for the same services in 2023.

Medicaid is a state-operated, jointly funded public health insurance program supported by both the federal and state governments. It serves low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it a significant part of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid dollars are funded by taxpayers, shifts in local billing reflect how a community allocates health care resources.

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category includes a collection of Medicaid-billed services determined by the type of care provided, categorized with set HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this report, each code was placed into a single service category based on standardized prefixes and numeric blocks, enabling analysis of related services without overlap or double counting and ensuring consistent historical ranking.

While several service groups saw increases in Medicaid spending, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the fourth-highest category by total Medicaid payments in Bellingham for 2024.

Statewide in Washington, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment also placed fourth among all Medicaid payment categories in 2024.

During the five-year period ending in 2024, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Bellingham grew by $2,269,257—a 74% increase. Notable year-over-year jumps occurred in 2020 and 2023, driving the overall trend.

Spending on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was distributed throughout Bellingham, but payments were concentrated in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, the ZIP code 98225 accounted for $4,902,510 in Medicaid payments, while 98226 reached $432,898; together, these 2 ZIP codes represented all of Bellingham’s Medicaid spending for this service category for the year.

Within this category, a small number of billing codes garnered most of the Medicaid payments.

To compare, Medicaid payments tied to this category in Bellingham grew by 1.3% from 2023 to 2024, whereas all Medicaid claim categories in the city combined saw a 4.4% change during that same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid spending was approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. This made up about 18% of total national health spending and jumped from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase is equivalent to roughly 40% growth in just a few years, mostly due to increased enrollment and higher service use during and after the pandemic.

Federal budget measures under the Trump administration have included several major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and shift how the program operates. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to trim more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid spending over a decade and brings policies such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could reduce coverage and lower funding for some recipients. These policy changes are forecasted to increase state costs and lower the rate at which federal Medicaid support grows, though Medicaid will continue to serve tens of millions of people 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.