Burns sees 7.9% growth in Medicaid payments for pathology and laboratory procedures in 2024

In 2024, Burns Medicaid providers billed $9,652 for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures services, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database shows. This amount is up by 7.9% from 2023, when $8,942 in claims were processed for this service category.

Medicaid, the state-administered public health insurance program jointly financed by federal and state governments, serves low-income populations, seniors, children, and those with disabilities. It forms a significant part of the U.S. health care system.

Since taxpayer funding supports Medicaid payments, changes in local billing patterns reflect how public health care resources are distributed within a community.

The “Pathology and Laboratory Procedures” group covers a set of Medicaid-reimbursed services, classified using standardized HCPCS and CPT coding systems. For this report, billing codes were organized into service groupings using consistent code ranges, which aids in tracking related services, supporting accurate long-term rankings, and avoiding duplication.

Although Medicaid spending climbed in multiple service groups, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures ranked fifth by total Medicaid payments in Burns in 2024.

Statewide in Oregon, Pathology and Laboratory Procedures placed sixth by total Medicaid payments in 2024.

From 2019 through 2024, Medicaid spending on Pathology and Laboratory Procedures in Burns rose by $2,680, an increase of 38.4%. Some years saw sharper jumps, such as the annual increases recorded in 2022 and 2021.

While this spending occurred throughout Burns, claims were mostly concentrated in a small number of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 97720 accounted for $9,652, comprising 100% of Medicaid spending for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures in the city that year.

Further, individual Medicaid payments in this category were mostly limited to a few billing codes.

Comparatively, Medicaid payments for Pathology and Laboratory Procedures in Burns rose 7.9% from 2023 to 2024, while overall Medicaid reimbursement across all local claim categories grew by 20.5% during the same window.

Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services shows combined state and federal Medicaid spending reached about $871.7 billion in fiscal 2023. This represented roughly 18% of U.S. health care expenditures, up from about $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This increase amounts to growth of approximately 40% in a few years, attributed largely to rising enrollment and increased service utilization during and after the pandemic.

Recent federal budget actions during the Trump administration introduced several significant proposals to trim federal Medicaid spending and restructure the program. Among them, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to decrease federal Medicaid funding by over $1 trillion over the next 10 years and includes provisions such as work requirements and more cost-sharing that may reduce coverage for some recipients. State governments could see a growing share of Medicaid costs as these federal changes are implemented—even as Medicaid continues to cover tens of millions of people nationwide.

Note: HCPCS codes are provided for reference within the category. The totals and rankings in this article rely on categorized groupings of services and do not report individual billing code amounts.

Details in this article source the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. Original data can be viewed here.