Elizabeth Medicaid providers generated $71,032,484 in billed services for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This reflects a 2.3% increase from 2023, when claims in this category reached $69,460,699.
Medicaid is a public health insurance program managed by states and jointly funded by federal and state governments. It provides coverage for low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it a key part of the U.S. health system. Learn more at the Commonwealth Fund.
Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, trends in billing levels highlight how public health care dollars are distributed throughout the community.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category groups Medicaid-billed services according to the nature of care delivered, determined by uniform HCPCS and CPT coding. For this analysis, each code was assigned to a specific service group using code prefixes and ranges, ensuring related treatments could be tracked together, avoiding duplicate counts and maintaining accurate yearly comparisons.
Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment accounted for the largest amount of Medicaid spending within Elizabeth in 2024, ahead of all other service categories.
This category also ranked first among all Medicaid payment categories statewide in New Jersey for 2024.
Over the five years preceding 2024, Elizabeth’s Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment climbed $14,652,784—a 26% rise. The pace of growth was quicker in some years, especially with notable annual gains in 2023 and 2021.
Spending on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Elizabeth was primarily concentrated in certain ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 07202 recorded $58,045,505 in Medicaid spending for this category, 07208 saw $12,678,530, and 07201 had $162,786. These three ZIP codes together represented 99.8% of all Medicaid payments for this care in the city during the year.
Within this service category, Medicaid payments were largely associated with a small set of unique billing codes.
For context, Medicaid payments tied to these services in Elizabeth rose 2.3% between 2024 and 2023, slightly outpacing the overall citywide increase across all Medicaid claim categories, which was 2.2% for the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, accounting for around 18% of national health care expenditures. This is a sharp increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This rise equates to about 40% growth in just a few years, driven chiefly by increased enrollment and higher utilization during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget policy under the Trump administration has included major proposals to cut federal Medicaid spending and restructure the program. One such example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal Medicaid funding by over $1 trillion in the next decade while implementing work requirements and expanded cost-sharing, potentially curbing coverage for some recipients. These changes would shift greater costs to states and may limit the rise of federal Medicaid support as the program continues to cover tens of millions nationwide.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $56,379,700 | 2.7% |
| 2021 | $60,861,156 | 7.9% |
| 2022 | $63,130,377 | 3.7% |
| 2023 | $69,460,699 | 10% |
| 2024 | $71,032,484 | 2.3% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $71,032,484 | 48.3% |
| 2 | Evaluation and Management | $27,082,293 | 18.4% |
| 3 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $20,049,188 | 13.6% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $9,061,200 | 6.2% |
| 5 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $7,398,707 | 5% |
| 6 | Radiology Procedures | $4,148,484 | 2.8% |
| 7 | Surgery | $1,954,907 | 1.3% |
| 8 | Dental Services | $1,408,648 | 1% |
| 9 | Procedures / Professional Services | $1,283,703 | 0.9% |
| 10 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $1,182,172 | 0.8% |
| 11 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $834,853 | 0.6% |
| 12 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $615,731 | 0.4% |
| 13 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $438,725 | 0.3% |
| 14 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $297,660 | 0.2% |
| 15 | Vision Services | $152,912 | 0.1% |
| 16 | Temporary Codes | $92,868 | 0.1% |
| 17 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $8,704 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Chemotherapy Drugs | $1,077 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Durable Medical Equipment | $462 | <0.1% |
| 20 | Outpatient PPS | $59 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Pathology and Laboratory Services | $4 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H2016 | Comp comm supp svc, per diem | $57,549,548 | 24 |
| H0040 | Assert comm tx pgm per diem | $9,848,055 | 11 |
| H2021 | Com wrap-around sv, 15 min | $1,099,375 | 20 |
| H2015 | Comp comm supp svc, 15 min | $1,071,574 | 10 |
| H0039 | Asser com tx face-face/15min | $974,996 | 11 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $260,374 | 16 |
| H0036 | Comm psy face-face per 15min | $156,581 | 17 |
| H0032 | Mh svc plan dev by non-md | $38,377 | 9 |
| H0004 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $32,132 | 12 |
| H0001 | Alcohol and/or drug assess | $1,083 | 11 |
| H0003 | Alcohol and/or drug screenin | $385 | 6 |
Note: HCPCS codes are displayed for reference within the category. Totals and rankings in this report use standardized service grouping instead of individual billing codes.
Data in this article were obtained from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Source data can be accessed here.
