Medicaid providers in Cleveland billed $44,038,469 for services in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category during 2024, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This total reflects a 9% uptick from 2023, when $40,385,783 in claims were filed for the same service category.
Medicaid is a public health insurance initiative jointly financed by states and the federal government and operated at the state level. It provides coverage for low-income populations, older adults, children, and people with disabilities, making it a core component of the nation’s health care structure.
With Medicaid funded by taxpayers, local billing trends shed light on how community health care dollars are distributed.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” classification includes a set of Medicaid-billed treatments, grouped by care type under standardized HCPCS and CPT code ranges. To assemble this analysis, each code was mapped to one service grouping by applying stable code prefixes and ranges, allowing analysis of related services by category while avoiding duplication and saving accurate rankings over time.
Medicaid spending grew across several service areas; Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment held the sixth-highest payment total in Cleveland for 2024.
At the state level in Ohio, this category ranked second by total Medicaid payments in 2024.
Over the five-year span through 2024, Cleveland saw Medicaid payments linked to this service category rise by $3,113,716, or 6.6%. Spending growth was especially strong at certain times, with significant year-over-year gains seen in 2022 and 2022.
While expenditures in this category spanned Cleveland neighborhoods, a few ZIP codes drew a majority of the funds. In 2024, ZIP code 44115 saw $8,121,935 in Medicaid-related payments for these services, ZIP code 44103 reported $5,457,450, and ZIP code 44120 tallied $4,836,929. Collectively, these 3 ZIP codes captured 41.8% of all impacts in this service category within the city for the year.
Within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment service group, Medicaid payments were also focused on a minority of individual billing codes.
To compare, the 9% increase recorded for this service group between 2024 and 2023 trails the 13.9% growth rate noted for all Medicaid claim categories in Cleveland over the same period.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid expenditures stood at approximately $871.7 billion for fiscal 2023, which represented about 18% of all national health costs, increasing sharply from about $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic onset.
This reflects an approximate 40% rise in just a few years, mainly as a result of expanded enrollment and increased utilization amid and following the pandemic.
Recent federal budget actions passed during the Trump administration feature major efforts to reduce federal contributions to Medicaid and to reorganize its structure. An example is the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025. The act is projected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over a decade and implement work requirements and greater cost-sharing, which may affect coverage and finances for certain beneficiaries. As a result, states could bear more costs and face limits on Medicaid funding expansion while the program continues to cover millions across the country.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $47,152,184 | -18.3% |
| 2021 | $38,100,345 | -19.2% |
| 2022 | $41,240,555 | 8.2% |
| 2023 | $40,385,783 | -2.1% |
| 2024 | $44,038,468 | 9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $112,279,615 | 18.1% |
| 2 | Procedures / Professional Services | $102,165,802 | 16.5% |
| 3 | Evaluation and Management | $99,512,729 | 16% |
| 4 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $59,462,652 | 9.6% |
| 5 | Radiology Procedures | $51,284,839 | 8.3% |
| 6 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $44,038,468 | 7.1% |
| 7 | Surgery | $35,214,888 | 5.7% |
| 8 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $30,191,492 | 4.9% |
| 9 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $27,757,913 | 4.5% |
| 10 | Chemotherapy Drugs | $21,883,826 | 3.5% |
| 11 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $20,464,925 | 3.3% |
| 12 | Dental Services | $10,773,815 | 1.7% |
| 13 | Temporary Codes | $2,370,058 | 0.4% |
| 14 | Durable Medical Equipment | $658,529 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Enteral and Parenteral Therapy | $654,868 | 0.1% |
| 16 | Anesthesia | $644,691 | 0.1% |
| 17 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $441,367 | 0.1% |
| 18 | Pathology and Laboratory Services | $415,055 | 0.1% |
| 19 | Outpatient PPS | $331,988 | 0.1% |
| 20 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $167,563 | <0.1% |
| 21 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $114,936 | <0.1% |
| 22 | Vision Services | $43,564 | <0.1% |
| 23 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $43,456 | <0.1% |
| 24 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $9,051 | <0.1% |
| 25 | Hearing Services | $1,018 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H2019 | Ther behav svc, per 15 min | $12,896,426 | 1,957 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $8,033,638 | 292 |
| H2020 | Ther behav svc, per diem | $6,567,966 | 429 |
| H2036 | A/d tx program, per diem | $3,639,615 | 53 |
| H0020 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $3,261,578 | 78 |
| H0005 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $2,105,116 | 319 |
| H0011 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,751,158 | 20 |
| H0006 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,669,410 | 343 |
| H2034 | A/d halfway house, per diem | $1,510,025 | 24 |
| H0036 | Comm psy face-face per 15min | $915,806 | 199 |
| H0040 | Assert comm tx pgm per diem | $431,494 | 58 |
| H0038 | Self-help/peer svc per 15min | $371,561 | 60 |
| H0048 | Spec coll non-blood:a/d test | $257,419 | 280 |
| H2017 | Psysoc rehab svc, per 15 min | $121,329 | 32 |
| H2000 | Comp multidisipln evaluation | $113,246 | 23 |
| H2012 | Behav hlth day treat, per hr | $109,619 | 86 |
| H0004 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $99,015 | 54 |
| H1000 | Prenatal care atrisk assessm | $95,820 | 49 |
| H2015 | Comp comm supp svc, 15 min | $84,000 | 2 |
| H0001 | Alcohol and/or drug assess | $2,786 | 3 |
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.
