Chatham posts $20,495 in 2024 Medicaid payments for National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Chatham billed a total of $20,495 for services categorized under National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount reflected a 44.6% rise from the prior year, when billing totaled $14,171 for these services.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program, is operated at the state level and funded jointly by federal and state governments. The program offers coverage to low-income people and families, older adults, children and those with disabilities, representing one of the largest segments of the U.S. healthcare system.

As Medicaid payments are financed through taxes, fluctuations in local billing shed light on how community health funds are being spent.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” segment encompasses a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by care type, as defined by standardized HCPCS and CPT coding ranges. For this study, each billing code was attributed to a single service category using uniform prefix assignments and number ranges to track related services together, minimize potential double counting, and ensure accurate year-over-year rankings.

While Medicaid payments increased across several service areas, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies placed fifth among service categories for total Medicaid disbursements in Chatham in 2024.

Statewide in Virginia, the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category stood in first place by total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Across the five years preceding 2024, Medicaid expenditures for the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies group in Chatham grew by $8,707, equal to 29.8%. Growth accelerated in certain stretches, with significant year-over-year increases documented in 2022 and 2022.

Although spending for this category was geographically distributed in the city, most payments came from a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 24531 represented the highest amount—$20,494 in Medicaid payments—meaning only 1 ZIP code accounted for the entire total reported under this category for the year in Chatham.

Within the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies segment, a handful of HCPCS billing codes made up the majority of Medicaid expenditures.

Comparatively, Medicaid payments specifically associated with this category in Chatham went up 44.6% from 2023 to 2024, compared to a 21.1% change reported across all Medicaid service categories in the city for the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached roughly $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up about 18% of the nation’s health care costs, up markedly from about $613.5 billion in 2019 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This marks an increase of approximately 40% over just a few years, attributed largely to expanded enrollment and greater use of services during and after the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget legislation signed during the Trump administration included major provisions that reduce overall federal Medicaid funding and alter program structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” made law in 2025, is expected to lower federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion during the next 10 years while implementing cost-sharing and work requirements. Such changes could curtail coverage and lower funding for some recipients, potentially shifting financial responsibility to individual states even as Medicaid continues to provide for millions.

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.