In 2024, Medicaid providers in Talladega submitted claims totaling $408,698 for services in the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This figure reflects a 32% jump from 2023, when claims in the same category reached $309,525.
Medicaid, a state-administered public health insurance program funded jointly by state and federal governments, provides coverage to low-income individuals, seniors, children, and people with disabilities, making it a significant component of the U.S. health care system.
Since Medicaid payments use taxpayer money, shifts in local billing levels can illustrate how public health care funds are distributed within a community.
The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” category encompasses a range of Medicaid-billed services defined according to standardized HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this review, each billing code was included in a single service category through matching code prefixes and numeric ranges, helping to examine related services cohesively while preventing double counting and maintaining accurate rankings over time.
While Medicaid expenditures grew in several service categories, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures held the third-highest total Medicaid payments in Talladega in 2024.
Statewide in Alabama, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures also ranked third overall by total Medicaid payments during 2024.
Across the five-year period leading up to 2024, Medicaid payments for the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category in Talladega climbed by $262,996, an increase of 180.5%. There were notable year-over-year gains, particularly in 2021 and 2022, reflecting accelerated spending growth in those periods.
Payments for services in this category, though present throughout Talladega, were primarily concentrated within a small number of ZIP codes. During 2024, ZIP code 35160 accounted for $408,697 in Medicaid payments within the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures category. This means the top 1 ZIP codes represented 100% of the year’s Medicaid spending for this category in Talladega.
Within the Pathology and Laboratory Procedures group, a few individual billing codes made up the majority of Medicaid payments.
In comparison, while Medicaid payments for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures in Talladega increased 32% between 2024 and 2023, the overall change across all Medicaid claim categories in the city for the same period was 23.2%.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, making up approximately 18% of all U.S. health spending. This was a significant rise from around $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This jump marks roughly 40% growth over several years, largely due to expanded Medicaid enrollment and increased care usage during and after the pandemic.
Recent federal spending legislation under the Trump administration brought forward large-scale proposals to reduce Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is estimated to cut federal Medicaid funding by more than $1 trillion over the next ten years. The legislation includes provisions such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, which may lessen both coverage and funding for some enrollees. The measures are expected to shift greater cost responsibility to states and place limits on future federal Medicaid growth, despite the program’s continued role in covering tens of millions across the country.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $145,701 | -23% |
| 2021 | $297,525 | 104.2% |
| 2022 | $328,741 | 10.5% |
| 2023 | $309,524 | -5.8% |
| 2024 | $408,697 | 32% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $2,216,689 | 50.5% |
| 2 | Evaluation and Management | $1,319,683 | 3<0.1% |
| 3 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $408,697 | 9.3% |
| 4 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $246,101 | 5.6% |
| 5 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $122,676 | 2.8% |
| 6 | Vision Services | $62,572 | 1.4% |
| 7 | Dental Services | $6,228 | 0.1% |
| 8 | Surgery | $4,772 | 0.1% |
| 9 | Radiology Procedures | $2,376 | 0.1% |
| 10 | Durable Medical Equipment | $1,343 | <0.1% |
| 11 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $695 | <0.1% |
| 12 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $364 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| 87633 | Resp virus 12-25 targets | $122,166 | 23 |
| 87880 | Strep a assay w/optic | $71,456 | 90 |
| 87632 | Resp virus 6-11 targets | $56,759 | 11 |
| 87804 | Influenza assay w/optic | $28,639 | 42 |
| 87811 | Sars-cov-2 covid19 w/optic | $28,449 | 31 |
| 87651 | Strep a dna amp probe | $21,143 | 23 |
| 87798 | Detect agent nos dna amp | $20,426 | 23 |
| 87486 | Chlmyd pneum dna amp probe | $14,398 | 11 |
| 87581 | M.pneumon dna amp probe | $14,398 | 11 |
| 85025 | Complete cbc w/auto diff wbc | $12,680 | 58 |
| 80053 | Comprehen metabolic panel | $12,345 | 41 |
| 83036 | Hemoglobin glycosylated a1c | $1,443 | 9 |
| 80061 | Lipid panel | $1,406 | 4 |
| 81001 | Urinalysis auto w/scope | $810 | 12 |
| 87088 | Urine bacteria culture | $803 | 5 |
| 87807 | Rsv assay w/optic | $400 | 3 |
| 81025 | Urine pregnancy test | $380 | 10 |
| 83690 | Assay of lipase | $245 | 2 |
| 87070 | Culture othr specimn aerobic | $191 | 1 |
| 81003 | Urinalysis auto w/o scope | $119 | 3 |
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.
