Alcohol and drug abuse Medicaid payments up 0.3% across Massachusetts in 2024

Massachusetts Medicaid providers billed a total of $695,464,533 for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represents a 0.3% increase over 2023, when payments reached $693,163,531.

Medicaid, a major part of the U.S. health care system, is administered by states with joint funding from federal and state governments. The program covers low-income groups, including individuals, families, seniors, children and those with disabilities. More details are available from the Commonwealth Fund.

Since Medicaid payments rely on taxpayer funding, changes in billing at the local level highlight how public health dollars are allocated in communities.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” group encompasses Medicaid-billed services organized by specific care type, using established HCPCS and CPT codes. For this analysis, each billing code was placed under a single service group through standardized prefixes and number ranges, ensuring related services are reviewed together and double counting is avoided for accurate tracking.

These categories can cover different underlying treatments. When this occurs, the group includes related care typically billed together under Medicaid, such as clinic visits, diagnostic procedures and therapies.

While services relating to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment were provided statewide, payment totals were concentrated within a few ZIP codes. In 2024, the leading ZIP codes for Medicaid payments in this category were ZIP Code 02210 with $59,839,313 (8.6% of statewide total), ZIP Code 01104 with $49,126,344 (7.1%), and ZIP Code 02302 at $30,560,655 (4.4%).

Combined, these top three ZIP codes made up 20.1% of the Medicaid payments attributed to the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category statewide for the year.

For context, Medicaid payments covering all service categories statewide also increased by 0.3% from 2023 to 2024.

Although multiple service categories saw spending rise, the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category continued to be among the top three for total Medicaid payments in Massachusetts in 2024.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, state and federal Medicaid spending together reached approximately $871.7 billion during fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of the nation’s total health expenditures. This is a notable increase from $613.5 billion in 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This change reflects around 40% growth in only a few years, mostly due to expanded Medicaid enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal legislation approved during the Trump administration included major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and change the structure of the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which became law in 2025, is projected to cut federal Medicaid support by more than $1 trillion over 10 years and adds policies such as work requirements and more cost sharing, which could reduce coverage and funding for certain beneficiaries. These measures are anticipated to shift more costs to states and slow the expansion of federal Medicaid aid, while the program continues to cover tens of millions of people in the country.

Data in this article is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. You can access the source data here.