California Medicaid payments reach $5.46 billion for services billed under National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies in 2024

California Medicaid payments reached $5,464,301,429 in 2024 for services billed under the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category, based on figures from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. That amount marked a 6.6% gain over 2023, when the state recorded $5,124,851,583 in such claims.

Medicaid, a public health coverage program directed by states and funded by federal and state budgets, serves low-income people, families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities, playing a major role in the U.S. health system.

Shifts in local Medicaid billing levels reflect how taxpayer dollars are being directed toward public health services within a given community.

The “National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies” category describes a group of Medicaid-billed services defined by type of care in line with standardized HCPCS and CPT coding. This analysis assigned each billing code to an exclusive service category based on established code prefixes and ranges, grouping similar care types to maintain both clarity and accuracy in long-term financial comparisons.

If a category includes multiple types of underlying services, it captures related care commonly billed together in Medicaid, including office visits, diagnostic tests, and therapeutic procedures.

Looking over the five years before 2024, Medicaid payments linked to the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies category in California grew by $1,902,421,103, a 53.4% increase. The pace of growth was particularly strong in some years, particularly 2021 and 2023.

Although payments for these services occurred across California, a relatively small number of ZIP codes accounted for a large share of the funding. In 2024, ZIP Code 90020 saw Medicaid payments totaling $116,317,172 (2.1% of the statewide figure); ZIP Code 95128, $75,719,986 (1.4%); and ZIP Code 92503, $70,263,038 (1.3%).

Together, these three ZIP codes represented 4.8% of all Medicaid payments for services in the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies grouping for the year.

In comparison, California’s total Medicaid payments across all claim categories rose 4.3% between 2023 and 2024.

Spending increased in multiple Medicaid service categories, with the National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies grouping ranking near the top for total payments in 2024 statewide.

According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, combined state and federal Medicaid expenditures were about $871.7 billion in fiscal year 2023, equaling around 18% of national health care spending. This was up sharply from about $613.5 billion in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This represents growth of nearly 40% over several years, largely due to expanded enrollment and higher utilization during and after the pandemic.

Recent major federal budget laws enacted under the Trump administration included major proposals to cut federal Medicaid spending and change the structure of the program. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” signed in 2025, is anticipated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion over ten years and implement measures such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing that may lead to coverage and funding reductions for certain recipients. These policy shifts are likely to place additional financial responsibility on states and restrict future federal contributions to Medicaid, even as enrollment remains high.

Data supplied for this article came from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. The original source data is available here.