Arab Medicaid providers billed $1,988 for COVID-19-specific services in 2024

In Arab, Medicaid providers submitted claims amounting to at least $1,988 in 2024 for services directly associated with COVID-19 as identified using HCPCS codes, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show.

Medicaid, a state-administered program jointly financed by federal and state governments, offers health coverage to low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and people with disabilities. This makes it one of the nation’s largest health care programs. For more information on Medicaid’s funding, see here.

Because Medicaid dollars come from taxpayers, variations in local claim levels help illustrate how public health resources are distributed in a given community.

For this reporting, COVID-19 services were counted when billed under HCPCS codes specifically classified as “COVID-19” or “coronavirus”-related by billing descriptions or reference datasets. Thus, the totals represent services that were explicitly coded as linked to COVID, and they do not include related care billed under less specific or broader medical designations.

As a comparison, in 2024, Birmingham led all Alabama locations in Medicaid payments linked to COVID-19, with $1,029,178 in claims for virus-associated services.

Premier Family Care Arab LLC was the only provider that billed Medicaid for COVID-19-specific services in Arab during 2024, according to documented data.

In the pandemic years, payments for COVID-19 services made up a major portion of Medicaid spending growth in the community.

From 2020 through 2024, overall Medicaid payments across all other claim categories in Arab grew by $996,919—an increase of 116.8%.

Average annual Medicaid spending in the two years before the pandemic was $842,729 in Arab.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, federal and state Medicaid spending totaled about $871.7 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, representing 18% of all U.S. health expenditures—a sharp rise from approximately $613.5 billion in 2019, the year preceding the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change reflects about 40% growth in several years, primarily fueled by increased enrollment and usage during and after the pandemic’s onset.

Recently enacted federal budget legislation during the Trump administration introduced substantial measures to restrict federal Medicaid outlays and alter the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is forecast to reduce federal Medicaid expense by over $1 trillion over 10 years and includes work requirements and higher cost-sharing for beneficiaries. Such changes are expected to shift more financial responsibility to states and potentially limit future federal Medicaid commitment, even as the program continues to serve tens of millions of Americans.

Note: Totals only include HCPCS codes directly identified as COVID-19 services and do not encompass all spending related to the pandemic.

Data in this article came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database, which is accessible here.