Myerstown sees 1,600% surge in Medicaid medicine services, procedures payments in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Myerstown billed $68 for services in the Medicine Services and Procedures category, per the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. That amount is a 1,600% rise compared with 2023, when just $4 was claimed for the same service group.

Medicaid operates as a public health insurance initiative, funded by both federal and state governments while being administered at the state level. It covers low-income people, families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, making it one of the largest programs in U.S. health care.

Since Medicaid draws on taxpayer funding, shifts in local billing reflect how health care resources are dispersed at the community level.

The “Medicine Services and Procedures” classification represents a set of Medicaid-billed services grouped by the type of care based on standardized HCPCS and CPT codes. For this review, each billing code was consistently assigned to one service group using code prefixes and numeric ranges, which allows statistical analysis of grouped services and supports accurate ranking while preventing double counting.

Spending on Medicaid increased in several categories, but Medicine Services and Procedures ranked fourth by total Medicaid payments in Myerstown for 2024.

Statewide in Pennsylvania, Medicine Services and Procedures was the third largest Medicaid payment category this year.

During the five years preceding 2024, the total Medicaid outlay in Myerstown for Medicine Services and Procedures went up by $596, or 89.8%. The rate of spending increases varied, with notable annual growth occurring in 2021 and 2022.

Expenditures for these services were distributed throughout Myerstown, but primarily located in a small set of ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 17067 accounted for $67 in payments, making it the city’s leading contributor. All told, this ZIP code contributed 99.5% of Medicaid payments for these services in Myerstown in 2024.

Additionally, just a handful of billing codes within the Medicine Services and Procedures segment accounted for most of the Medicaid payments.

When comparing years, Medicaid payments in Myerstown related to Medicine Services and Procedures climbed by 1,600% between 2024 and 2023. For all Medicaid categories combined, the city experienced a 4.9% change in that same period.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, total federal and state Medicaid spending reached roughly $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023. That figure represents about 18% of the nation’s health expenses, rising sharply from about $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This near-40% increase over a few years is primarily attributed to expanded Medicaid enrollment and greater health care use during and in the aftermath of the pandemic.

Recent federal budget legislation signed during the Trump administration included major plans to scale back federal Medicaid spending and revise the program’s structure. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is expected to reduce federal Medicaid funding by over $1 trillion in a decade and puts in place policies calling for work requirements and more cost-sharing—potentially decreasing coverage and funds for some recipients. As a result, states may face increased financial responsibility even as millions of Americans continue to rely on Medicaid going forward.

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.