In 2024, South Plainfield Medicaid providers billed $18,836,055 for services under the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount reflects a 28% increase from 2023, when billing for the same category reached $14,716,698.
Medicaid, a public health insurance program, is administered by individual states but is funded jointly by federal and state governments. The program provides coverage for low-income individuals, families, seniors, children and people with disabilities, making it a significant component of the U.S. health care system.
Since taxpayer dollars support Medicaid payments, variations in local billing illustrate how public health care funding is distributed within communities.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” group includes a range of Medicaid-billed services categorized by care type, using standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this report, individual billing codes were assigned to a single service group using consistent code prefixes and numerical ranges, which allowed related services to be analyzed together without double counting, ensuring accurate rankings across years.
Multiple Medicaid service categories experienced growth, but Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment led South Plainfield in total Medicaid payments for 2024.
Statewide, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment was also the top Medicaid payment category in New Jersey in 2024.
Looking at the five years up to 2024, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in South Plainfield rose by $12,325,967, or 189.3%. Spending growth accelerated in certain years, with significant gains recorded in 2023 and 2022.
Though Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment spending was distributed throughout the city, the majority of payments were focused in a small number of ZIP codes. For 2024, ZIP code 07080 accounted for $18,836,054 of Medicaid payments in this category—making up 100% of South Plainfield’s total for the year.
Payments within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment group were also concentrated among fewer individual billing codes.
To put this in perspective, while South Plainfield’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Medicaid payments climbed 28% between 2024 and 2023, the increase across all Medicaid claim categories in the city during the same period was just 0.1%.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined federal and state Medicaid spending reached approximately $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, representing about 18% of total U.S. health expenditures. This figure was up substantially from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, before the arrival of COVID-19.
This represents an increase of around 40% in just a few years, driven largely by greater enrollment and higher usage during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal budget actions during the Trump administration have included substantial proposals to reduce federal Medicaid funding and change the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut more than $1 trillion in federal Medicaid spending over 10 years and introduces new policies, such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which could lower funding and coverage for some recipients. These changes may require states to cover more costs and limit federal funding growth, even as Medicaid continues to serve tens of millions of people.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $6,510,088 | 0.3% |
| 2021 | $6,585,276 | 1.2% |
| 2022 | $8,332,671 | 26.5% |
| 2023 | $14,716,697 | 76.6% |
| 2024 | $18,836,054 | 28% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $18,836,054 | 41% |
| 2 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $16,442,741 | 35.8% |
| 3 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $7,625,269 | 16.6% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $1,351,568 | 2.9% |
| 5 | Evaluation and Management | $1,142,508 | 2.5% |
| 6 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $205,133 | 0.4% |
| 7 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $73,345 | 0.2% |
| 8 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $47,412 | 0.1% |
| 9 | Orthotic Procedures and services | $38,107 | 0.1% |
| 10 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $32,833 | 0.1% |
| 11 | Durable Medical Equipment | $32,316 | 0.1% |
| 12 | Dental Services | $28,591 | 0.1% |
| 13 | Surgery | $21,320 | <0.1% |
| 14 | Radiology Procedures | $21,114 | <0.1% |
| 15 | Chemotherapy Drugs | $15,545 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Durable medical equipment (DME) Medicare administrative contractors (MACs) | $8,046 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Procedures / Professional Services | $1,650 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Temporary Codes | $1,164 | <0.1% |
| 19 | Vision Services | $237 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H2016 | Comp comm supp svc, per diem | $14,278,214 | 43 |
| H2021 | Com wrap-around sv, 15 min | $4,416,029 | 30 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $140,528 | 10 |
| H0048 | Spec coll non-blood:a/d test | $1,282 | 11 |
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.
