Queensbury Medicaid spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment up 30.2% to $528,003 in 2024

In 2024, Medicaid providers in Queensbury billed $528,003 for services listed under Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment, based on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Medicaid Provider Spending database. This represented a 30.2% rise compared to 2023, when claims totaled $405,453 for the same service classification.

Medicaid is a government-run health insurance program administered by the states and financed through collaboration between federal and state governments. It covers low-income groups including families, seniors, children, and individuals with disabilities and is one of the largest components of the U.S. health system.

Because taxpayer dollars fund Medicaid, shifts in local billing levels indicate how community public health resources are spent.

The “Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment” label groups together Medicaid services defined by care type, as determined by standardized HCPCS and CPT code categories. For this report, each billing code was mapped to a distinct service category using consistent code prefixes and ranges, so related services could be examined collectively without duplication and to support accurate time-based ranking.

Although multiple service categories experienced an uptick in Medicaid spending, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment ranked fourth in Queensbury for total Medicaid payments in 2024.

Statewide in New York, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment placed fifth by total Medicaid payment volume in 2024.

From five years prior to 2024, Medicaid spending in Queensbury connected to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment increased by $219,408—or 71.1%. Certain years, such as 2020 and 2022, saw especially large year-over-year jumps in this category.

Spending for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment services was distributed throughout the city, but was heavily focused in a few ZIP codes. In 2024, ZIP code 12804 accounted for $528,002 in Medicaid payments for this category—representing 100% of Queensbury’s total Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment Medicaid payments that year.

Payments within the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment group were concentrated among a small set of billing codes.

For context, Medicaid payments connected to Alcohol and Drug Abuse Treatment in Queensbury climbed 30.2% between 2024 and 2023. Across all Medicaid claim types in the city, the overall change for that same span was 22%.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that combined federal and state spending on Medicaid reached about $871.7 billion for fiscal year 2023, or roughly 18% of all U.S. health expenditures, up steeply from $613.5 billion in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This growth reflects an increase of about 40% over a few years, mainly due to broader enrollment and greater service usage during and following the pandemic.

Federal budget laws enacted under the Trump administration have featured major proposals to lower federal Medicaid funding and restructure benefits. The “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” passed in 2025, is estimated to reduce federal Medicaid spending by more than $1 trillion in 10 years, with provisions such as work requirements and increased cost-sharing, potentially decreasing coverage and funding for certain recipients. The changes are anticipated to shift additional costs to states and restrain the growth of federal Medicaid support, even as the program continues to serve 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.