In 2024, Medicaid providers in Taos submitted $7,149,463 in claims for services listed under the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment category, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This amount represented a 16.6% rise from 2023, during which providers billed $6,133,717 for the same services.
Medicaid, a joint federal and state health care program, insures low-income people, families, seniors, children and those with disabilities, making it one of the largest segments of the U.S. health care system. The program is publicly financed by both federal and state governments.
Since Medicaid expenses are taxpayer funded, shifts in local billing levels offer a window into how public health care resources are distributed locally.
The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” label refers to a set of Medicaid-billed services identified by specific types of care, based on select HCPCS and CPT code groupings. For this review, each billing code was placed into a single service group using standardized prefixes and numeric boundaries. This organization allows for tracking of related services together, prevents double counting, and maintains ranking accuracy over time.
While multiple Medicaid service groups saw increases in spending, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment led all categories by total Medicaid payment amounts in Taos during 2024.
Statewide in New Mexico, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked fourth overall for total payments in 2024.
Medicaid spending tied to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Taos was up $3,915,191 and 121.1% over the five-year span ending in 2024. Some years, including 2020 and 2021, saw stronger year-on-year growth than others.
While these payments were disbursed throughout the city, most were concentrated within certain ZIP codes. In 2024, the ZIP code 87571 accounted for $7,149,462 of Medicaid Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment billing. The top 1 ZIP code made up 100% of such Medicaid payments in Taos for the year.
Within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment classification, only a small set of billing codes represented the bulk of all Medicaid payments.
Between 2024 and 2023, Medicaid payments associated with Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Taos climbed by 16.6%, while total Medicaid claims for all categories grew by only 0.2% locally in the same period.
Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services report that state and federal Medicaid expenditures reached about $871.7 billion nationwide in fiscal year 2023, or around 18% of total national health spending. This is a sharp increase from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This growth amounts to about 40% in just a few years and is largely attributed to increased enrollment and greater utilization during and following the pandemic.
Recently, federal budget initiatives under the Trump administration have included major proposals to decrease federal Medicaid funding and alter the program’s structure. For instance, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” enacted in 2025, is estimated to cut federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in the coming decade and implements measures like work requirements and increased cost-sharing. These moves may reduce both coverage and funding for certain recipients and are expected to increase the share of Medicaid costs borne by states while slowing the rise of federal Medicaid funding, even as millions of Americans continue to rely on the program.
| Year | Total Medicaid Payments | % Change From Previous Year |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $3,234,271 | 348.3% |
| 2021 | $6,038,002 | 86.7% |
| 2022 | $6,819,193 | 12.9% |
| 2023 | $6,133,716 | -10.1% |
| 2024 | $7,149,462 | 16.6% |
| Rank | Category | Medicaid Payments | Share of City Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment | $7,149,462 | 33.6% |
| 2 | Medicine Services and Procedures | $5,439,056 | 25.6% |
| 3 | Evaluation and Management | $4,823,598 | 22.7% |
| 4 | National Codes Established for State Medicaid Agencies | $1,341,661 | 6.3% |
| 5 | Radiology Procedures | $1,128,462 | 5.3% |
| 6 | Pathology and Laboratory Procedures | $453,304 | 2.1% |
| 7 | Procedures / Professional Services | $375,220 | 1.8% |
| 8 | Ambulance and Other Transport Services and Supplies | $245,011 | 1.2% |
| 9 | Durable Medical Equipment | $134,842 | 0.6% |
| 10 | Surgery | $58,190 | 0.3% |
| 11 | Dental Services | $47,012 | 0.2% |
| 12 | Vision Services | $36,548 | 0.2% |
| 13 | Drugs Administered Other than Oral Method | $17,287 | 0.1% |
| 14 | Medical And Surgical Supplies | $11,992 | 0.1% |
| 15 | Temporary National Codes (Non-Medicare) | $6,575 | <0.1% |
| 16 | Outpatient PPS | $3,571 | <0.1% |
| 17 | Temporary Codes | $3,533 | <0.1% |
| 18 | Administrative, Miscellaneous and Investigational | $38 | <0.1% |
| HCPCS Code | Description | Medicaid Payments | Claims |
|---|---|---|---|
| H2015 | Comp comm supp svc, 15 min | $4,022,931 | 174 |
| H0015 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $2,108,204 | 26 |
| H2016 | Comp comm supp svc, per diem | $906,659 | 12 |
| H0018 | Alcohol and/or drug services | $51,155 | 1 |
| H0031 | Mh health assess by non-md | $36,796 | 10 |
| H2000 | Comp multidisipln evaluation | $11,640 | 1 |
| H0039 | Asser com tx face-face/15min | $11,271 | 1 |
| H0049 | Alcohol/drug screening | $802 | 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.
