Thatcher Medicaid payments for alcohol and drug treatment rise to $702,644 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Thatcher billed $702,644 for services within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount reflects a 6.8% uptick from the $657,673 in claims documented for 2023 for this service category.

Medicaid is a public health program administered by individual states and funded jointly by federal and state governments. It provides health coverage to low-income individuals and families, children, seniors, and those with disabilities, and is a major component of the U.S. health care system.

Since taxpayer funds supply Medicaid payments, shifts in local billing illustrate how public health resources are distributed within communities.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” category encompasses Medicaid-billed services grouped by the nature of care, utilizing standardized HCPCS and CPT code classes. For the purposes of this analysis, billing codes were assigned to a single category via consistent code prefixes and ranges, ensuring services are counted only once and accurate trends and rankings are maintained.

Among all service types, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment received the highest total Medicaid payments in Thatcher in 2024.

Statewide in Arizona, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment placed fourth for total Medicaid payments among all service categories in 2024.

During the five years leading up to 2024, Thatcher’s Medicaid spending on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment increased by $374,496, marking a 114.1% rise. The pace of spending growth accelerated in certain years, including 2023 and 2020, when notable annual increases occurred.

Citywide spending in this category was focused in a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 85552 accounted for $702,643 in Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, representing 100% of Thatcher’s total for this category that year.

A few individual billing codes received most of the Medicaid payments within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category.

Comparing 2024 to 2023, Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Thatcher grew by 6.8%, outpacing the overall 3.2% increase across all Medicaid service categories in the city for the same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up around 18% of all national health spending—an increase from roughly $613.5 billion in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This surge reflects approximately 40% growth over several years, largely attributed to increased enrollment and greater service use during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget legislation under the Trump administration included notable measures to limit federal Medicaid funding and modify the program’s structure. For example, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut federal Medicaid spending by over $1 trillion in the next decade by introducing policies such as work requirements and higher cost-sharing, changes that may reduce coverage and funding for certain recipients. These shifts are anticipated to transfer a larger share of costs to states, slowing the growth of federal Medicaid contributions as the program continues to cover tens of millions of Americans.

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.