Denver Medicaid spending on national codes tops $236.4 million in 2024, up nearly 18%

In Denver, Medicaid providers submitted $236,416,763 in claims for services within the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category in 2024, figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database show. This represented a 17.7% rise compared to 2023, when providers billed $200,849,985 for the same category of services.

Medicaid, a public health insurance program managed by states and funded through joint federal and state contributions, provides coverage for low-income people, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it a central component of the U.S. health care system.

Since Medicaid is funded by taxpayers, fluctuations in local billing demonstrate how public health dollars are distributed within a community.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” category encompasses a selection of Medicaid-billed services grouped by the type of care provided, based on standardized HCPCS and CPT coding frameworks. For analytic consistency, billing codes were assigned to a single service category using clear prefixes and numeric intervals, which enabled grouping of similar services while avoiding double counting and ensured accurate annual positions.

While spending across several Medicaid service categories grew, National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies held the second-highest rank in Denver for total Medicaid payments during 2024.

At the state level, this category led all other Medicaid service categories in Colorado for total payments in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid payments attributed to National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies in Denver grew by $111,867,953, marking an 89.8% increase. Periods with higher increases included both 2022 and 2021.

Though these Medicaid dollars were used citywide, most payments in the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category were concentrated in a handful of ZIP codes. In 2024, leading ZIP codes by dollar amount included 80231 ($62,337,162), 80224 ($50,606,132), and 80222 ($28,513,149). These 3 ZIP codes together accounted for 59.8% of Denver’s Medicaid payments in this category for the year.

Payments within this category also concentrated within a select number of specific billing codes.

In Denver, Medicaid payments associated with National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies rose 17.7% from 2023 to 2024, surpassing the 7.4% overall increase across all Medicaid claim categories locally that year.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state spending on Medicaid neared $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, making up close to 18% of all U.S. health expenditures. This rose sharply from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

That growth of about 40% in just a few years was primarily driven by increased enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic phase.

Recent budget reforms under the Trump administration contained numerous measures to limit federal Medicaid spending and change the overall structure. As an example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over 10 years and introduces new policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing. These provisions could curb coverage and funding for some groups, with resulting greater financial responsibility shifted to states and less federal support, although the program serves tens of millions of people nationwide.

Note: HCPCS codes are presented to clarify the structure of the category. Group totals and ranks referenced here are based on standardized service groupings, not individual code-level data.

All data used in this article are drawn from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Access the source information here.