Elmwood Park sees 3.8% rise in Medicaid payments for medicine services and procedures in 2024

Elmwood Park Medicaid providers billed $152,316 for Medicine Services and Procedures in 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents a 3.8% increase from the previous year, when providers submitted $146,719 in claims for the same category.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program operated at the state level and funded by both federal and state governments, serves low-income individuals, families, seniors, children and those with disabilities, making it a major component of the U.S. health care system.

Because taxpayers fund Medicaid payments, shifts in local billing levels provide insight into community allocation of public health care resources.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” classification includes a variety of Medicaid-billed services grouped by care type, based on standard HCPCS and CPT code ranges. In this analysis, billing codes were assigned to defined service categories using consistent code prefixes and numbers to group related services, ensure accurate rankings, and prevent double counting over time.

Spending on Medicaid increased in several service categories, but Medicine Services and Procedures held the second spot in Elmwood Park for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in Illinois, Medicine Services and Procedures ranked fifth for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Elmwood Park saw Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures climb by $81,920, or 116.4%. There were significant year-over-year increases during certain periods, notably in 2023 and 2021.

Although payments for Medicine Services and Procedures were distributed throughout the city, a small number of ZIP codes saw the largest shares. In 2024, ZIP code 60707 accounted for $152,316 in Medicaid payments in this category. This ZIP code represented 100% of Elmwood Park’s Medicaid payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in 2024.

Within this service category, a limited range of billing codes comprised most Medicaid payments.

To compare, payments for Medicine Services and Procedures in Elmwood Park grew by 3.8% from 2023 to 2024, while across all Medicaid claim categories citywide, the change was 12.2% over the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of all national health expenditures, up from $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This reflects a roughly 40% increase in several years, largely due to expanded enrollment and greater utilization during and after the pandemic period.

Recent federal budget bills passed under the Trump administration proposed major reductions to federal Medicaid funding and program changes. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years and brings new policies, such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, which may affect beneficiary coverage and funding levels. These adjustments are anticipated to shift financial responsibility to states and limit federal Medicaid funding growth, even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.

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.