Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in Brewton rise to $73,859 in 2024

Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows that Medicaid providers in Brewton billed $73,859 for services in the Medicine Services and Procedures category in 2024. This represents a 20.3% increase from 2023, when $61,384 in claims were submitted under the same service category.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program administered by states and jointly funded by both federal and state governments, serves low-income individuals and families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities. As one of the largest parts of the U.S. health care system, its reach is extensive.

Because Medicaid payments come from taxpayers, variations in local billing indicate how funds dedicated to public health care are distributed at the community level.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” category is made up of a range of Medicaid-billed services that are defined by the specific care provided, organized by standardized HCPCS and CPT code groups. This analysis assigned each billing code to a service category using consistent code prefixes and number ranges, which allows for related services to be analyzed as a group and avoids duplicate counting or misranking over time.

Even as Medicaid spending grew in several service categories, Medicine Services and Procedures ranked fourth in Brewton in terms of total Medicaid payments for 2024.

Statewide in Alabama, the Medicine Services and Procedures group also placed fourth for total Medicaid payments during 2024.

In the five-year period leading into 2024, Brewton experienced a $13,968 increase—or 23.3% growth—in Medicaid payments for the Medicine Services and Procedures category. This growth accelerated at certain points, with substantial annual increases noted in 2021 and 2022.

Though Medicine Services and Procedures payments were distributed citywide, the funds primarily came from a select group of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 36426 accounted for $73,859—making up 100% of the category’s Medicaid payments in Brewton that year.

Within the Medicine Services and Procedures group, Medicaid payments centered around a small set of individual billing codes.

Comparing growth, Brewton’s Medicine Services and Procedures Medicaid payments advanced by 20.3% from 2023 to 2024, while all Medicaid claim categories in the city collectively saw a 31.6% increase in the same timeframe.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state spending on Medicaid rose to about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, representing roughly 18% of total national health expenditures. This is a marked rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This reflects about 40% growth in recent years, driven significantly by increased enrollment and more widespread usage throughout and following the pandemic.

Federal budget actions under the Trump administration have proposed large reductions to federal Medicaid funding and changes to the program’s structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to trim more than $1 trillion from federal Medicaid funds over 10 years and bring policies like work requirements and heightened cost-sharing. These measures could lower coverage and available funding for some individuals, shifting more expenses to states and cutting growth in the federal support of Medicaid, even as millions continue to receive coverage.

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.