Medicaid alcohol and drug treatment payments in Humble climb 53.2% in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Humble billed $1,088,468 for services categorized as Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This figure is up 53.2% from 2023, when claims in the same category totaled $710,570.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program overseen by the states and funded through a partnership between federal and state governments, covers low-income families and individuals, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, making it one of the largest programs in U.S. health care.

Since taxpayer funds finance Medicaid payments, variations in local billing highlight shifts in how public health care dollars are distributed across communities.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category includes a range of Medicaid-billed services identified by care type, which are grouped by standard HCPCS and CPT code sets. For this report, each billing code was placed into a single service category using consistent code prefixes and number ranges to ensure accurate grouping, avoid double counting, and maintain clear rankings over time.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the sixth largest Medicaid payment category in Humble by total value in 2024, even as Medicaid spending rose across several service categories.

Statewide in Texas, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was the fourth largest category by Medicaid spending in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments for this treatment category in Humble increased by $1,088,468, remaining at 0% change overall. The pace of spending rose during certain intervals, with notable year-over-year growth reported in 2022 and 2023.

Although payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services spanned the city, they were concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 77338 reported $980,380 in Medicaid payments, and 77396 accounted for $108,087, representing a combined 100% share of the category’s payments in Humble that year.

Within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment grouping, Medicaid payments were further concentrated in just a few individual billing codes.

Between 2024 and 2023, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Humble increased by 53.2%, outpacing the overall growth across all Medicaid claim categories citywide, which rose 28.2% during that same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined spending at the federal and state levels for Medicaid totaled about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023, making up approximately 18% of all health expenditures nationwide. This marks a significant rise from $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change reflects an almost 40% jump in just a few years, primarily due to greater enrollment and increased service use during and after the pandemic period.

Recent budget legislation under the Trump administration has included major proposals to scale back federal Medicaid funding and change the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over the next 10 years, adding requirements like work mandates and higher cost-sharing, which could decrease coverage and funding for some Medicaid members. These revisions will likely mean states take on more costs and that federal support may not keep pace as the Medicaid program continues to assist tens of millions nationwide.

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.