Westminster Medicaid providers submitted $18,823,516 in claims for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services in 2024, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount represents a 27.9% increase over 2023, when total claims for the same service type reached $14,712,126.
Medicaid is a public health insurance system administered by states and financed through federal and state cooperation. The program serves low-income families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it a key element in the national health care system.
Since Medicaid relies on taxpayer funding, shifts in local billing levels indicate changing allocations of public health care money within communities.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” group includes Medicaid services as defined by types of care delivered, categorized based on specific HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this assessment, each code was matched to a unique service group using set code prefixes and number sets, which enabled examination of service trends and maintained accuracy in rankings over time.
Total Medicaid spending rose across multiple service categories, but Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment placed second-highest in Westminster in 2024.
Statewide in Colorado, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the third largest category by total Medicaid payments in 2024.
From 2019 through 2024, Westminster saw a $14,231,785 increase—or 309.9% growth—in Medicaid payments related to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment. During this span, certain years such as 2020 and 2022 showed especially rapid gains on a year-over-year basis.
Though billed services for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment occurred throughout Westminster, most 2024 payments were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. That year, the highest payment totals were in 80234 at $15,209,411, 80031 at $1,865,629, and 80030 at $1,610,304—together making up 99.3% of Westminster’s Medicaid payments in this category.
Within the category, much of the Medicaid spending was focused on a limited range of specific billing codes.
In comparison, Medicaid payments attributed to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment rose 27.9% from 2023 to 2024 in Westminster, while statewide payments across all Medicaid service types changed by just 1.4% during that period.
As reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending together reached around $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, equal to roughly 18% of all U.S. health expenditures—a significant jump from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began.
This change signifies about a 40% increase in just a few years, mainly fueled by growth in enrollment and greater use of services during and after the pandemic.
Recent congressional budget measures signed under the Trump administration have incorporated major efforts to curtail federal Medicaid funding and revise the program’s structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is set to decrease federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over a decade, introducing policies such as work requirements and more cost-sharing measures that could reduce benefits and coverage for certain participants. The law is expected to transfer greater costs to individual states and slow the expansion of federal Medicaid resources, even as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $4,591,730 | 168.2% |
| 2021 | $6,070,197 | 32.2% |
| 2022 | $11,024,717 | 81.6% |
| 2023 | $14,712,125 | 33.4% |
| 2024 | $18,823,516 | 27.9% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $25,571,704 | 43.3% |
| 2 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $18,823,516 | 31.8% |
| 3 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $5,025,076 | 8.5% |
| 4 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $3,070,093 | 5.2% |
| 5 | Evaluation and Management | $2,990,569 | 5.1% |
| 6 | Durable Medical Equipment | $988,577 | 1.7% |
| 7 | Dental Services | $880,451 | 1.5% |
| 8 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $645,643 | 1.1% |
| 9 | Procedures / Professional Services | $514,515 | 0.9% |
| 10 | Vision Services | $362,194 | 0.6% |
| 11 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $97,486 | 0.2% |
| 12 | Radiology Procedures | $86,823 | 0.1% |
| 13 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $24,195 | <0.1% |
| 14 | Surgery | $17,267 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $6,728 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $3,746 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Temporary Codes | $668 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $13 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H0038 | Self-help/peer svc per 15min | $14,341,391 | 38 |
| H2019 | Ther behav svc, per 15 min | $1,265,715 | 35 |
| H0020 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $1,060,909 | 12 |
| H2021 | Com wrap-around sv, 15 min | $998,592 | 15 |
| H2023 | Supported employ, per 15 min | $253,928 | 10 |
| H2036 | A/d tx program, per diem | $173,150 | 3 |
| H0035 | Mh partial hosp tx under 24h | $153,725 | 3 |
| H0001 | Alcohol and/or drug assess | $106,941 | 13 |
| H0016 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $92,570 | 3 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $79,272 | 3 |
| H2014 | Skills train and dev, 15 min | $57,739 | 3 |
| H0005 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $54,877 | 18 |
| H0006 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $52,921 | 13 |
| H0002 | Alcohol and/or drug screenin | $38,968 | 20 |
| H0023 | Alcohol and/or drug outreach | $38,081 | 20 |
| H2032 | Activity therapy, per 15 min | $29,333 | 7 |
| H0004 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $16,920 | 15 |
| H0032 | Mh svc plan dev by non-md | $5,698 | 8 |
| H0033 | Oral med adm direct observe | $2,779 | 2 |
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.
