Alcohol and drug abuse treatment sees $737,944 in Morrison Medicaid spending in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Morrison submitted claims totaling $737,944 for services grouped in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount reflects a 536.4% rise from 2023, when the total was $115,960 for comparable services.

Medicaid operates as a state-run public health insurance program funded cooperatively by state and federal governments. The program’s coverage extends to low-income individuals and families, seniors, children, and Americans with disabilities, making it an essential aspect of the national health care system.

Because Medicaid expenditures originate from taxpayers, shifts in local billing totals reflect the allocation of community health care resources.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” service group represents a collection of Medicaid-billed services identified by care type, standardized under specific HCPCS and CPT codes. For analytic purposes in this article, each code has been assigned a single service category, relying on systematic code prefixes and number ranges to group related services, thereby maintaining accurate comparisons and avoiding double counting over time.

Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment experienced the highest Medicaid expenditure among all service categories in Morrison in 2024.

Statewide, this category ranked as the third-largest in Colorado for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

In the five-year period through 2024, Morrison’s Medicaid spending tied to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment expanded by $737,154, or 93283.4%. The pace of spending growth accelerated during certain years, with distinct annual gains emerging most notably in 2023 and 2020.

Throughout Morrison, local Medicaid payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment were spread among several geographic areas, though the largest share was found in specific ZIP codes. In 2024, the ZIP code 80465 accounted for payments totaling $737,944. Combined, the leading ZIP code made up 100% of Morrison’s Medicaid payments for this category in that year.

Payments for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services under Medicaid were predominantly linked to a small set of individual billing codes.

To illustrate further, between 2024 and 2023, Morrison experienced a 536.4% increase in Medicaid spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, compared to a 399.2% change for all Medicaid claim categories locally during the same time frame.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, state and federal spending on Medicaid reached roughly $871.7 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, representing about 18% of total national health expenditures. This is a sharp increase from about $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 emergency.

This growth of about 40% over several years has been largely attributed to rising enrollment numbers and greater utilization during and after the pandemic.

In recent years, federal budget initiatives during the Trump administration have included major proposals to curtail federal Medicaid outlays and change the program structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to cut over $1 trillion in federal Medicaid funding over ten years and implements requirements such as mandatory work and increased cost-sharing. These adjustments are projected to lower coverage and funding for some recipients, shift a greater cost share to states, and restrain federal Medicaid funding growth—even as the program continues to cover tens of millions nationwide.

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.